The Knesset Corona committee met Sunday to discuss the government's proposals for additional public restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus and decided to ask the cabinet to allow public pools and beaches to remain open on weekends.
The committee also decided to ask the cabinet to allow restaurants to remain open at 35% indoor seating capacity, if they operate in accordance with public health regulations, and allow gyms to re-open.
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On Saturday, committee chairwoman MK Yifat Shasha-Biton threatened not to pass the cabinet's desired public health restrictions, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to seek her ouster.
Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch joined the committee meeting on Sunday afternoon and said that the proposed restrictions, which the committee is resisting, were designed to "prevent a shutdown."
Kisch added that swimming at beaches and pools was not the problem -- gatherings outside the water were. He said that gatherings in and outside restaurants presented the same issue and promised to seek out a compromise that would allow beaches to remain open.
"We are in the middle of a mega-event … In the first wave, there were confirmed cases in 78 communities, and now there are over 200 communities reporting cases," Kisch told the committee.
In the weekly cabinet meeting earlier Sunday, Netanyahu said the government was "making every effort to avoid a general lockdown."
"We are working at the coronavirus' pace. We do not have many choices; it is not a normal situation. This is not a situation in which we can do all these processes that take days and hope that everything will be fine. The disease is changing speed and we must change together with it," the prime minister said.
"The steps that we are submitting here, the recommendations, mainly include the way to stop gatherings, to prevent gatherings in closed spaces of over 10 people and of over 20 in open spaces. This is not scientific. There are always exceptions. However, this is our direction -- to prevent such gatherings.
"The alternative," Netanyahu warned, would be "much harsher steps tomorrow, which we are trying to avoid."
"It could be that we will have no choice and then we will take them, but at the moment we are trying to make quick and joint decisions. It is very important that we unite around these decisions … The important thing is that once a decision, or decisions, is or are made, we all stand behind them. This is the minimum required of any government, especially one in such a crisis," he said.
Strategic Affairs Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen voiced harsh criticism of Netanyahu's recent steps to deal with the coronavirus crisis and its economic fallout. Farkash-Hacohen said the government had no clear plan and "pulled out something new every two weeks."
Farkash-Hochen also called Netanyahu's proposal to hand out six billion shekels ($1.74 billion) in grants to every citizens, regardless of income level, "the worst plan."
In response, Environmental Affairs Minister Gila Gamliel said that during the first wave of corona, "everything worked excellently." Gamliel said that the prime minister and finance minister should be allowed to work without people "throwing a wrench in the works."
Economy Minister Amir Peretz said that all decisions about the coronavirus crisis made by the National Security Council should be double-checked by another team.
One cabinet minister said after the meeting, "that's just the problem. One committee and then another, and another body that has to check. It becomes clumsy. As if that wasn't enough, 21 ministers spoke during the cabinet meeting."
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