Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed the cabinet meeting that was supposed to take place Monday night to pass a new set of coronavirus restrictions on the State of Israel, media reports indicate that the ministers will be reviewing a set of restrictions on Tuesday that are far more severe than what the prime minister rolled Monday night. According to reports, the closure could last until Saturday night. The news comes as the number of people infected with the novel virus continues to spike, reaching 9,003 by Tuesday morning. Some 60 people have died of COVID-19 and 153 are in serious condition, including 113 people who are intubated.
Channel 12 revealed that the draft that the ministers will review would include a ban on travel between cities beginning Tuesday and ending only after Shabbat.
In addition, transit between cities could be banned until Saturday night and traffic within cities and neighborhoods could also be further restricted so that one can only shop within his own municipal area. This is in contrast to the current guidelines, that allow the public to stock up on food and medicine all over the country.
Overnight, the Knesset passed in its final reading approximately NIS 16 billion of additional funding that will be available for the National Insurance Institute. A further NIS 40b. will be available to fulfill additional promises made in the government’s financial aid package published last week, including an NIS 8b. loan fund for small businesses. To enable this, earlier Monday, the Knesset Finance Committee approved amendments to the basic law on the state economy.
Blue and White said that even though the bill passed after 2 am, all of its 17 MKs attended the vote except for Ram Shefa (whose wife had a baby), as did Labor MKs Amir Peretz and Itzik Shmuli, who will be joining Blue and White.
On Monday night, Netanyahu said that Purim parties were a pivotal point in the spread of the virus and asked that the public adhere to the Passover guidelines: “Every family will have their Seder alone, celebrating only with their nuclear family,” the prime minister said.
Netanyahu reported that the Health Ministry does see a slowdown in the spread of COVID-19 and that there are “positive signs on the horizons.” He said that the country is “making plans for exit strategies” but that these would only take place after the holiday.
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