Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is contemplating further tightening Israel's third lockdown in an effort to quickly reopen the economy, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.
Israel entered its third national lockdown last Sunday in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. While the lockdown was initially set for two weeks, it will likely remain in place throughout January if the number of daily infections remains above 1,000.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Israel currently has 48,908 active cases of the coronavirus. Of the 76,182 people who tested for the virus on Saturday, 3,977 were found to be positive, for an infection rate of 5.3%. There are 769 people in serious condition, 196 of whom are on ventilators. So far, 3,404 people have died.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein also called for a tighter lockdown.
In a statement on Saturday, Health Ministry officials said, "In light of the significant and worrying increase in morbidity and the number of serious cases, and the discovery of the mutation, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein calls on all decision-makers to act responsibly and avoid campaign populism."
Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, who heads the ministry's Public Health Services department, told Israel Hayom that given the increase in morbidity during the lockdown and in the midst of the country's vaccination campaign, "We will recommend the closure of the entire education system. From the start, we thought it should be closed. In recent days, we've seen significant infections inside the education systems with outbreaks where there aren't just one or two confirmed cases but a large number of confirmed cases. The opening of schools is one of the factors that speeds up morbidity. We have to bolster the restrictions now."
Alroy-Preis said additional restrictions could also be imposed on workplaces that do not accept customers and which are currently allowed to operate at 50% capacity.
"There is a 20% decrease in people's movement but that is not a lockdown and will not result in the effect of bringing down infections," she said.
Health Ministry officials believe dozens of Israelis have been infected with the mutated virus strain first identified in the UK and said to be responsible for the recent outbreak in the Haredi sector. According to officials, the speed of the infections is such that if at one point, it would have taken one week for an entire family to become infected, it now takes only 48 hours.
The newly formed Israel Commerce Forum has threatened that if the government does not impose a hermetic lockdown it will open all stores on Jan. 10.
According to the forum's members, they have united to be an "iron fist against the government's policies," which they said have made the commerce sector the coronavirus' main victim without reason. "Now there's a fake lockdown," they said. "Either impose a full lockdown or we are opening up commerce on Jan. 10 and not one day later."
The Education Ministry, on the other hand, has been fighting to keep the school system open.
The chairman of the National Parents Association Merom Schiff said, "The education system is paying the price for the inability to enforce the lockdown restrictions. The Israeli government prefers the import of corona patients to education, and sends the message open skies are preferable to education."
He called on members of the so-called "coronavirus cabinet" "to order the inoculation of all educational staff, to make an exemption for the education system and take it out of the equation. Stop driving the children, the parents, the teachers, and the entire system crazy. The decision to close everything might be the easiest for you to make but it is the worst decision for millions of students and parents around the country."
Teachers' union head Yaffa Ben-David has threatened educators around the country could go on strike if they are made to teach in-person before receiving the vaccine.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu is in talks with the heads of pharmaceutical companies to ensure Israel is able to maintain its current rate of vaccination. "Netanyahu will hold a discussion next week on a short, tightened lockdown that will allow for the market to quickly reopen."
On Saturday, the government announced over 1 million Israelis had been inoculated against the coronavirus since Israel's vaccination campaign kicked off on Dec. 20. According to the Our World in Data website, Israel is the world leader in the number of doses administered per 100 residents, with nearly 12% of its 9 million residents vaccinated thus far. Behind Israel are Bahrain with 3.49% and the UK with 1.47% inoculated.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
