Israel's coronavirus cabinet voted to impose a night curfew from Wednesday December 9 until January 2 as the number of new Covid-19 cases continues to rise. The cabinet will meet today to decide the exact hours - from 7pm to 5pm has been suggested - and what distances people will be allowed to go from their homes.
Many Ministry of Health officials including National Coronavirus Project Coordinator Prof. Nachman Ash expressed skepticism on whether these measures would be enough to stem the rise in infections. The idea of the curfew is to prevent social gatherings in the holiday season with Hanukkah starting Thursday evening and through to Christmas and New Year's Eve later this month.
The new restrictions come as 1,837 people tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday, up nearly 50% from 1,245 last Monday, and the largest figure since mid-October, towards the end of the second lockdown. 65,523 tests were carried out yesterday with 2.8% proving positive. There are currently 315 people seriously ill with the virus in hospital including 107 on ventilators. 347,331 Israelis have contracted Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic and 2,924 people have dies, the Ministry of Health reports.
The coronavirus cabinet also decided on some relaxations with the 15 shopping malls that opened two weeks ago allowed to continue operating and all malls to reopen.
Meanwhile the first vaccinations from Pfizer are expected to land in Israel on Thursday and health officials are hoping that with the national vaccination program, the entire crisis could be over by the end of the first quarter of 2021.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on December 8, 2020
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020