The Corona cabinet is slated to meet on Monday to make additional decisions about what steps the country will take to check the spread of coronavirus, with one of the hot-button issues being whether or not to allow Israelis to fly to Uman in the Ukraine, a point of annual pilgrimage for Hassidic worshippers who pray at the grave of Rabbi Nahman of Uman.
Coordinator of Israel's efforts to battle coronavirus Professor Ronni Gamzu told Israel Hayom on Saturday that he did not believe that flights would be departing Israel for Uman "after letters from the president of the Ukraine and my unequivocal professional opinion that [allowing flights] would put the country at risk of a shutdown."
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As Gamzu is calling on Israel not to allow charter flights to the Ukraine, for fear of a mass outbreak over Rosh Hashanah, the Ukraine on Saturday reported a record 2,328 confirmed coronavirus cases within its borders.
This weekend, Israel officially reached a tally of more than 100,000 coronavirus cases as the government struggled to contain a resurgence in infection rates.
As of Sunday morning, the total number of confirmed cases identified in Israel since the start of the pandemic stood at 102,150, an increase of 720 from Saturday. There were 22,022 symptomatic carriers nationwide, 864 of whom were hospitalized.
The hospitalized patients included 408 listed in serious condition, of whom 112 were on ventilators, and 186 listed in moderate condition.
After midnight Saturday, an additional three Israelis succumbed to the virus, bringing the total death toll to 825. Nearly 80,000 (79,303) have contracted coronavirus and recovered.
Jerusalem, Israel's largest and poorest municipality, had by far the largest number of confirmed cases on Sunday morning: 17,009, which includes 3,386 symptomatic carriers. 1,323 of the cases in the city were confirmed in the past seven-day period.
Second in terms of corona numbers was Bnei Brak, with 9,383 confirmed cases, including 1,009 symptomatic carriers and Modi'in Illit, with 3,277 confirmed cases and 796 symptomatic carriers.
There were 318 doctors in quarantine on Sunday, as well as 521 nurses and 1,006 members of other health care professions.
An August 5 poll from the Israel Democracy Institute found that only 25% of Israelis approve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the pandemic, while some 58% identify with the protests against the government's economic policies.
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