Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the government will call in the next 48 hours to discuss tightening coronavirus restrictions during the third lockout since the outbreak began.
Netanyahu appears to want a tougher closure for a period of at least 10 days, while Defense Minister Benny Gantz opposes school closures altogether.
Police enforce coronavirus restrictions in Tel Aviv
(Photo: Reuters)
The prime minister said tightening the lockout that began last Sunday but has so far reduced the level of Israeli infection “the last attempt to eradicate the plague” while the vaccine rollout is slowed. follow.
The country has embarked on the most advanced vaccination program in the world, after delivering a tenth of the population the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in two weeks.
The Prime Minister has said he wants all Israelis in a high-risk group to get the vaccine by the end of January.
An Israeli man will receive the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine in the town of Baka al-Garbiyyeh
(Photo: Ido Erez)
Meanwhile, ministers on Monday night approved a new aid campaign for Israel’s tense economy, details of which had yet to be worked out.
Earlier Monday, the Ministry of Health reported that 5,135 new daily coronavirus cases were diagnosed on Sunday, with the disease rate rising to 6.6%.
The ministry said medical authorities on Sunday conducted 79,395 COVID-19 tests and 134,226 vaccines against the pathogen.
At least 731 patients are in poor condition, of which 201 are ventilated. The official death toll is now at 3,416 after a further 12 died on Sunday. The Ministry of Health said 69 people have died from coronavirus-related complications since the beginning of 2021.
Coronavirus ward at Ichilov Tel Aviv Medical Center
(Photo: TPS)
Over the past week, 38,228 new infections were reported in Israel, an average of 5,461 diagnoses per day.
At the height of the second wave in late September and early October, a national average of 5,660 cases was reported. However, the number of tests performed in the last few days is much higher than the number of tests performed during the second wave.
According to Oxford University, Israel over the past week has been ranked third in the world when it comes to diseases per capita, higher than the US and Britain alone.