The government is meeting on Sunday to discuss the extension of Israel’s lockdown and the closure of the airport. Both sets of measures are set to expire on Sunday at midnight.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to support the extension of the lockdown for a week, as requested by the Health Ministry, while Blue and White leader and Defense Minister Benny is asking to lift the restrictions already on Thursday, according to Israeli media reports.
“We need to reduce the morbidity, we already seeing that the lockdown is working. Another week and we can start opening,” Netanyahu said opening the meeting.
“The lockdown has a price. It is an economic price, a social price but also a price in terms of health. We cannot maintain these restrictions for a long time,” Gantz replied. “The effect of the vaccines is already evident, we must assign more staff to the campaign and to consider its effect within a traffic light program.”Earlier in the day, the minister told Blue and Right members that he visited Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan. “I saw that everything was open.”
Health authorities hope to see a significant reduction in new coronavirus cases and serious patients in the coming days.
The officials had already expected a substantial decrease in numbers last week because of the effect of the lockdown and the vaccination campaign. However, while in the last few days the figures seem to have started to trend downward, the reduction has not been considered large enough, especially in light of the fact that patients in serious condition have consistently numbered more than 1,100, straining the hospital system.
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The cause of the situation’s severity likely lies with new highly infectious coronavirus variants, according to experts, who say the variants appear to have dramatically increased the ability of the virus to spread. At the beginning of the cabinet meeting, coronavirus commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash told the ministers that about 70% of new cases identified in Israel are currently infected with the British variant.
Some 2,596 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Israel on Saturday, according to a Sunday morning update by the Health Ministry. While the figure is significantly lower than updates in previous days, the data is influenced by the effect of the weekend, with only 26,817 tests performed compared to some 70,000 during weekdays.
Of those infected, 1,162 were in serious condition and 298 were on ventilators. The death toll stands at 4,745.
If a lockdown had not been imposed, Israel would have registered some 20,000 new daily cases and 2,000 serious patients, Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch told Radio FM 103, part of The Jerusalem Post group.
The Health Ministry is also predicted to push to keep Ben-Gurion Airport closed for at least another two weeks, although it remains unclear whether legislation would be required to permit such a move.
The government meeting is able to take place after Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin announced Friday morning that the legislature will convene for a rare Sunday session to pass a bill raising fines on those who break coronavirus regulations. The bill which was finally passed on Sunday afternoon.
“The law applicable in Rishon and Herzliya will be equally applicable in Bnei Braq and Kiryat Sefer.
This is a big win for Blue and White, but it is primarily a win for the people, and a win in the battle against infection,” Blue and White commented in a statement. “Equal enforcement is not a measure taken against the Haredi sector; it is a measure designed for their benefit and for the benefit of every Israeli citizen.”
In the past weeks, numerous accidents involving the ultra-Orthodox sector were reported, including educational institutions opening in spite of the prohibition and life-cycle events with massive attendance. Ultra-Orthodox towns and neighborhoods have been especially affected by the pandemic.
Health officials hope that extending the lockdown will buy more time for Israel to reach a higher number of immunized citizens.
Some 1,729,000 Israelis, almost 20% of the country’s population, have already received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine, and more than three million people have received the first.
Over the weekend, 178,000 individuals were vaccinated.
“Tonight, the government will have to choose between two proposals, either to extend the lockdown or to open everything,” Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said before the Knesset plenary. “I will not play games. Ten days ago we asked for a two-week lockdown.Why have we gone through the uncertainty of the last few days? Because it was necessary to shorten the proposal of the Health Ministry. Why? I do not know.”
“Tonight the government will have to decide between the two options,” he emphasized. “If someone does not like it, they will need to take responsibility for once. Let us open up the whole economy and see the results, for those who say that the closure is unnecessary and does not work.”
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman contributed to this report.
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