Pilgrims Return from Ukraine to Israel with Fake Covid Tests

Hasidic pilgrims return from Ukraine to Israel with fake COVID-19 tests, reports with the BBC.

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Israel suspects Hasidic pilgrims who returned from Ukraine of falsifying coronavirus test results.

Last week, the Israeli Ministry of Health reported that dozens of pilgrims arrived in the country infected, although they had negative test results.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office subsequently said strict action would be taken against offenders for "deliberately spreading the disease."

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The coronavirus was confirmed in at least 1,5 thousand people out of 17 thousand pilgrims who returned to Israel from Uman on Thursday and Friday.

On Sunday, September 12, officials said that at least 154 Israelis suspected of using false documents were summoned for questioning by Israeli police. This was done through a new government directive.

They could be accused of fraud, forgery and aggravated spread of disease, the Ministry of Public Security said. For these crimes, violators can face up to five years in prison, notes The New York Times.

The number of coronavirus cases in Israel recently reached its highest level during the pandemic, but has fallen significantly in the past ten days - as officials believe booster doses have been administered to about a third of the population. The number of deaths is still 42% of the record high at the end of January.

The Israeli ambulance service, in cooperation with the Red Cross, deployed two testing points for pilgrims in Ukraine: one at the grave of the tzaddik in Uman, the other at the airport in Kyiv. Pilgrims needed a negative test result to board their flight home.

Israeli Health Ministry spokeswoman Sharon Alroy-Pries says some of those confirmed infected "hid" the results and received fake negative results in return.

Some canceled direct flights to Israel, realizing that the doctors had passed their names to air carriers, and flew to the country with transfers.

Israeli border guards knew the names of all those who tested positive at two points in Ukraine. In addition, the country does not rely on tests conducted overseas, and anyone who lands in Israel is tested before leaving the airport.

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Israel's Haaretz quoted an anonymous pilgrim as saying that it was easy to get fake results, and he knows several people who received documents created using a smartphone program.

“It's much simpler. It makes no sense: why pay money and then get to Israel and take the test again?” - he asked. However, he added: he thinks that “most” of the pilgrims underwent real testing.

Haaretz points out that the rate of Covid-19 among Israelis returning from Uman over the weekend is twice as high as among the country's general population - confirming warnings from Health Ministry officials that the Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage will have serious epidemic risks.

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