At the end of a meeting that started early Friday morning, the government approved easing the emergency regulations on the public, allowing more businesses to open, including hairdressers and beauty salons as well as restaurants and cafes for pickup and takeaway. The new regulations go into effect at midnight on Saturday night. Business owners will be required to maintain a two-meter distance between people, make sure to disinfect internal surfaces and require employees to wear gloves and masks. Shop owners will also be required to prevent crowding at the entrance to their stores and no more than two to four people can be in a checkout line at the same time, depending on the size of the store. Customers will have their temperatures taken on entry into any business and will be asked if they have symptoms of coronavirus, which include fever, coughing or difficulty breathing. On the other hand, malls will remain closed, as will acupuncturists and massage therapists – any business that is not medically essential but requires direct contact between the client and staff. Although salons can open, hairdressers will be required to disinfect equipment between haircuts or treatments. Moreover, beauty technicians will need to wear face guards that cover their eyes in addition to the masks that cover their mouths and noses. Only up to two people may be served by a barber at a time. A new team of municipal inspectors will join police and local authority inspectors in enforcing the regulations. Business owners are required to sign a declaration and file it with the municipality indicating that they will be open and following the rules, and that they themselves do not have symptoms. In every shift, there must be one staff member assigned to ensuring coronavirus regulations are maintained. The government also approved doubling some of the fines for violating the guidelines, to NIS 1,000 instead of NIS 500, and to NIS 2,000 instead of NIS 1,000. It was also decided that anyone over the age of seven would be required to wear a mask (an increase from six year olds) and that those who do not adhere to the policy will be fined NIS 200 without warning. The previous restrictions allowed for one warning, but a heftier fine. The new regulations are in effect until May 3. Netanyahu held a video call on Friday with leaders of Austria, Denmark and other countries to discuss what they can learn from each other as they move forward with their exit strategies. Earlier this week, the government faced fierce opposition from small business owners who had been forced to stay closed while others opened. Clothing store and toy store owners, for example, wanted to know why they had to remain shuttered when office supply stores or IKEA, for example, were able to open. The reduced restrictions come even though the number of cases of coronavirus continues to increase. As of Saturday morning, some 198 Israelis have died of the novel coronavirus, the Health Ministry reported. Some 15,148 people have been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Currently there are 130 people in serious condition, among them 102 who are intubated. Some 6,159 people have recovered. Earlier in the Friday meeting, the government approved an additional NIS 8 billion in financial aid for small businesses and self-employed workers on Friday, and a special “adaptation” grant for workers aged over 67 who have found themselves out of work.
The financial aid package for small businesses will include a grant of up to NIS 400,000 based on fixed costs and reduced revenues, and also includes the second payment of the extended grant for self-employed workers – up to 70% of taxable income or a maximum of NIS 10,500.
“This is a significant step supporting the return of the economy to regular activity,” the Prime Minister’s Office and Finance Ministry said in a joint statement following a Friday meeting of ministers.
According to the new plan, a total of NIS 5.2b. in grants will be available to businesses with turnover not exceeding NIS 20m. and whose sales were “significantly harmed” during March and April as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Grants will also be available to non-profit organizations registered as public institutions by the Israel Tax Authority.
A total of NIS 2.8b. will paid in grants to self-employed workers who suffered at least a 25% decrease in business between March and June. Applications can be made via the Tax Authority’s website from the first week of May. Government data shows that over 600,000 self-employed workers are expected to be eligible for the payments.
Citizens aged 67 or over who have been made redundant will be eligible for an NIS 4,000 grant in May, the government said.
The latest financial aid follows criticism regarding the apparent inaccessibility of an NIS 8b. government-guaranteed loan fund for small and medium-sized businesses. Figures published on Wednesday showed an improvement in the processing of applications, with almost 6,500 loans now approved – valued at a total of approximately NIS 2.5b.
New data published by the Israeli Employment Service on Thursday showed that over 995,000 Israelis have applied for unemployment support since the start of March, bringing the unemployment rate to an unprecedented total of 27.05%. Among them, 88% are employees placed on unpaid leave and 7.2% were made redundant.
“Even today, we continue to see that businesses large and small – even the strongest companies and organizations in the economy – are still placing hundreds and thousands of workers on unpaid leave, and are unfortunately being made redundant,” said Employment Service director-general Rami Garor.
A total of 3,840 employees placed on unpaid leave at the start of the crisis have informed the Employment Service of their return to work during the week. It is believed that several thousand more have returned to work, but not yet updated the authorities.
“Some Israelis who returned to work this week have not yet updated the Employment Service, but even if there are a few thousand more, it is clear that the number that lost their jobs this week – over 30,000 – is far higher,” Garor said. The government did not offer any other forms of relief, such as enabling the public to do sports free of any distance-from-home limitation.
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