At five minutes past midnight last night, that is, five minutes after the decision on the previous lockdown expired, the government approved the extension of the lockdown until Friday at 7 am. The decision represents a compromise between the proposal of Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein for a full week's extension, and the demand of Minister of Defense Benny Gantz that the extension should be for three days only. The government will meet again on Wednesday to decide whether to extend the lockdown further, beyond Friday morning, and on relaxations that are meant to be introduced from next week.
In addition, the government approved extending the ban on travel to and from Israel, other than in exceptional cases, by seven days until midnight on Sunday, February 7.
The government also decided to set up an exceptions committee to deal with requests to travel to Israel for humanitarian and special reasons while travel restrictions are in force. The committee will be headed by Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz, or his alternate, and will be composed of representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, and the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration.
From February 2 until February 7, people returning to Israel from any country will be required to enter isolation in government run hotels. Requests for exemptions will be examined individually by a committee of the Ministry of Health at Ben Gurion Airport.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 1, 2021
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