Crete has a climate similar to that of Israel. Not surprising since the flight time from Tel Aviv to the Cretan city of Chania, is only about 90-minutes. As one pundit quipped, ‘Less time than it takes me to drive from Manhattan to New Jersey.’
Once the necessary paperwork to leave Israel and enter Greece was completed online, with hard copies of vaccination records printed and placed in plastic sleeves along with passports and tickets, all that was left
was the necessary PCR test. An appointment was arranged through the Test&Go website and the test administered at a marked off area of Ben Gurion airport’s old terminal 1, now used mainly for charter flights. Results came back within 12-hours, plenty of time to make the flight. Cost of the test 44 shekels (@$15 per) person.
Ben Gurion’s staff were very careful to check the test results were negative and that all the necessary exit from Israel forms were filled out and the entry into Greece forms were completed.
The plane was nearly full. Ryan Air, a low-cost carrier, had offered tickets to the city of Chania, population @100,000, on the Greek island of Crete, population @600,000, for only 9 Euro (@$10) and a return ticket from Chania to Tel Aviv for 24 Euro (@$28). Baggage was extra, so that the total was about $100 per ticket round-trip including one normal suitcase and one carry-on. Masks were mandatory on the plane and most of the passengers abided by the rules. Some were double-masked.
Flying into Crete during a pandemic carried its own risks. At passport control, the border police asked to see a passport and the Greek arrival form filled out on line. No PCR test results were required. So far during the pandemic Greece, nationwide, has seen 697,033 cases with 15,418 deaths and has been experiencing about 2,550 new infections every day. This compared to Israel’s 1,317,758 cases, with 8010 deaths, but with a recent a drop in daily cases in Israel to about a thousand.
However, while Israel has a positivity rate of 1.7%, the rate on Crete, with a population of about 600,000, was only 0.23%, according to the ECDC( European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control). Crete reported 984 new cases in the last two weeks. 58% of the population of Crete has received two vaccinations. A booster is not yet available on the island.
As reported on the https://corissia.com/en/coronavirus website, “As a holiday guest in Crete, you have no significant restrictions. All shops and shops are open, there are no exit restrictions. There is no obligation to wear a mask outdoors, only a simple surgical or fabric mask must be worn in all closed rooms accessible to the public. Restaurants and bars (except in hotels), theatres, cinemas, nightclubs etc. may only serve vaccinated or recovered, seated persons indoors, only a minimum distance must be kept outdoors. Larger gatherings of people where a safe distance cannot be maintained are to be avoided at all costs. In all good hotels, predefined COVID-19 protocols have been used consistently since 2020 very successfully and are strictly controlled. The situation on site therefore still remains relaxed and you can, just like very many holiday guests before you, experience a completely untroubled holiday and return home healthy.”
In reality, shops display signs demanding customers wear masks, but the rule is not strictly applied. This compared to Israel where masks are nearly mandatory in all indoor venues. In Crete, masks were worn by hotel and most restaurant staff. Masks were of course not worn at the beaches. Walking around the old Venetian port of Chania some of the tourists wore masks, most did not.
Leaving Crete was more of a problem than leaving Israel. A PCR test was mandatory. The cost was 60 euro ( @$70) per person, and experts said this was the fee all across Greece. “Bit of tourist gouging,” said one pundit. In Chania the test was administered in a recently constructed aluminum ‘caravan’ outside the entrance to the IASSI hospital by an attendant covered head to toe in a gown, booties, head covering, mask, plastic shield and surgical gloves.
At the Chania airport, leaving for the return flight to Tel Aviv, no one asked to see the PCR test results, nor the on-line form required by Greece to leave the country. Perhaps, one observer opined, the results went right to a government computer.
The return flight to Tel Aviv was full. Again, most people wore masks. Landing in Ben Gurion was, as usual, very hi-tech. Scanners for the passports, scanners for the entry slips, then, before baggage claim, the signs leading to the PCR test required of all those arriving in Israel. Without a pre-ordered appointment the cost was another 100 shekels (@$30) per person. A Test results arrived within 12-hours but a 24-hour isolation period was required after arrival.
Back in Israel PM Bennett declared that the fourth wave of the Coronavirus was over. But Corona czar Salman Zaka warned, “We are optimistic, we see a downward trend…but the fourth wave is still here.” He also said he fears a fifth wave. Other health experts echoed Zaka’s warning, stressing that the upcoming flu season may complicate the fight against C-19. Some talk about an ‘Omega’ variant that has surfaced in Britain.
Meanwhile, according to The Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, 31% of the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) population of Israel contracted the C-19 virus compared to 13.7% of the non-religious Israelis. The number of serious cases in Israel has dropped precipitously to just 357 cases, of them 75% were unvaccinated. 168 were on ventilators. Israel has recorded 8010 deaths since the pandemic began, and yesterday recorded about 1,000 new cases, with 17,692 active cases. Health officials say this drop is a result of Israel’s vaccination campaign. As of now, 6.2 million Israelis have received 1 vaccine dose, 5.7 million two doses, 3.8 million three doses. Israel also approved the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccines starting Oct 21, with a doctor’s referral, for those over 18 who are unable to get the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA based vaccines.
Dr. Dorit Nitzan, the World Health Organization’s (WHO)European Regional Emergency Director, has said that Israel was correct in administering the 3rd ‘booster’ vaccine even without FDA approval.
World wide that are 241543051 cases, with 4,915,607 deaths, and 24,411,977 active cases. The USA is still number one in cases with 45,792,532, and 744,546 deaths with 9,673,391 active cases.
Diplomacy
Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde was the first Swedish diplomat to visit Israel in over a decade. Sweden and Israel had a falling out over Sweden’s recognition of Palestinian statehood in 2014. Recently, Sweden hosted world leaders at a Holocaust Remembrance even in Malmo, Sweden. “On behalf of Sweden I promise that we say, ‘never again,’ and meant it,” FM Linde said after visiting Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem.
In Memory
Oct 18th marked the 26th anniversary of the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid raised the hackles of some right-wing politicians when he said in a speech marking Rabin’s assassination that far-right members of the Knesset are the “ideological heirs” of Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir. Ayelet Shaked of the Yamina party said in a Facebook post that the “wild incitement” must stop.
