Given the steep rise in Israel's coronavirus morbidity and mortality, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein is expected to back at a meeting of the Corona cabinet on Wednesday a demand by the coordinator of Israel's fight against coronavirus Professor Ronni Gamzu to instate an immediate closure on cities, towns, and local authorities designated "red" under the newly-adopted traffic light system.
Edelstein is also expected to support Gamzu's recommendation to keep schools in red communities closed for now, although the school year officially began nationwide on Tuesday.
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The Corona cabinet will discuss additional limitations for red cities, towns, and local authorities, as well as the possibility of declaring a nationwide lockdown for the High Holidays, which begin on Friday, Sept. 18. However, no final decision on holiday policy will be made until Sept. 10.
"We made a difficult decision to start the school year in Israel, despite the spiraling virus numbers," Edelstein said during a visit to schools in Efrat.
Edelstein discussed the decision not to start the school year in red communities and said he "understood" the difficulty the decision posed for parents, teachers, and children.
"You need to understand, by making the decision right before the start of the year we were able to compile an up-to-date list of [red] cities and towns," the health minister explained.
Hours after the Corona cabinet added the Haredi towns Betar Illit, Rechasim, Emmanuel, as well as the city of Tiberias, which is home to a large Haredi population, to the list of red cities and issued orders for schools there to remain closed, residents were fuming.
Betar Illit decided to ignore the Corona cabinet's decision and open its schools, despite the risk. The municipality said that it had closed them again, but residents noted that the city had closed down only some of its schools.
"Most of the schools were open. Others closed after the police arrived and sent the students homes. It was terrible to see first-graders returning home, upset," one resident said.
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Betar Illit Mayor Meir Rubenstein sent a letter of outrage to the Health ministry, demanding that the city be re-classified as orange.
Bnei Brak, which was recently designated red after having been downgraded to orange, opened its schools on Tuesday, but only after taking special steps in coordination with Maj. Gen. (res.) Roni Numa, who has been assigned to handle the city's efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus there.
"We took our fate in our hands and spent millions of shekels to fight the virus," said city treasurer Arik Adler, who for the last six months has also served as head of the coronavirus headquarters of Bnei Brak.
Bnei Brak has taken the unprecedented step of testing all the 700 nursery school teachers and aides who work there to ensure that none of them are positive for coronavirus. The city also called in all its elementary school principals and directors of Talmud Torah institutions and reached agreements with them on strict health procedures.
"Every day, we visit five Talmud Torahs to make sure they are adhering to the conditions, and anyone who doesn't come up to par will see the police after we leave. Show me another city that conducts independent visits to schools," Adler said.
Bnei Brak also plans to test all its seminary students, some 4,000 18 and 19-year-old girls. Meanwhile, 6,000 yeshiva students in Bnei Brak have already been tested, and work is ongoing.
