The special ministerial committee on the coronavirus crisis met on Wednesday in order to deliberate on the next phase in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, almost two weeks after Israel entered an almost-total lockdown for the second time in six months.
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According to a report presented to the ministers, the lockdown has yet to produce the desired results. "The ineffectiveness of the lockdown could be explained by the community spread taking place within households, but it is clear that an extension of the lockdown is essential," the report said.
The strictest part of the lockdown came into effect on Friday, just before Yom Kippur, and is officially set to last until the end of Sukkot in early October.
However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the lockdown will have to span "at least month," without going into specifics.
The meeting on Wednesday is designed to explore the degree to which the current, strictest-to-date lockdown should be extended and whether some sectors of the economy could see restrictions lifted to help struggling families and businesses.
According to the emerging plan, every three weeks some restrictions would be lifted, in order to ensure the reproduction rate of the virus remains in check. A rate of 0.8% or higher – which means that each person could statistically be responsible for infecting another person in some scenarios – will result in the restrictions staying in place. Another metric would be the positivity rate – the percent of positive cases among the tests being carried out. The goal is to have a positivity rate lower than 5%, as well as to see a drop in the number of carriers who are in critical condition.
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