Health Ministry Director-General Hezi Levi said Wednesday morning that he is in favor of requiring teachers to get vaccinated for the coronavirus, a day before schools were scheduled to partially reopen.
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Some 706,416 COVID cases have been diagnosed in Israel since the pandemic hit the Jewish state in March 2020. The disease has claimed the lives of 5,233 Israelis, while 630,739 have recovered from it.
The Health Ministry said that the infection rate continued to decline on Tuesday, with 7.8% of coronavirus tests coming back positive – down from 8.8% of the tests on Monday and Sunday, and 9.5% of tests conducted on Saturday.
A total of 6,062 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed across the country on Tuesday, bringing the total number of active cases known to 70,444. Of those, 1,606 patients are hospitalized.
Thus far, 3,607,920 Israelis have received the first dose of the COVID vaccine, or 39.15% of the population, and 2,223,906 people, or 24.13% of the population, have been fully immunized.
Levi warned that with the national vaccination drive slowing down, and urged Israelis to get inoculated.
"If we see an increase in morbidity and the number of seriously ill patients rises again, we may have to take a step back," he said, referring to the gradual lifting of the national lockdown – Israel's third – which began on Monday.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus patients listed in serious or critical condition has fallen to its lowest level in over a month, Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch (Likud) said Wednesday morning.
Kisch said the number of patients hospitalized in serious condition with COVID-19 has fallen below 1,000 for the first time since early January, with 993 patients in serious or critical condition.
According to data released by the Health Ministry, it is the lowest number since Jan. 8.
Levi's demand that all teachers be vaccinated sparked outrage, with Teachers' Union head Yaffa Ben-David saying, "Our position is that we must not move toward sanctions. That's not the way to go about this."
Education Ministry Director-General Amit Edri told Army Radio, "The teachers are not the only population in Israel. I don't recall anyone else being forced to get vaccinated. We won't stop anyone from coming to their workplace; if the law changes we will act accordingly."
The squabbling came after the coronavirus cabinet on Tuesday evening approved a plan to reopen parts of the education system beginning on Thursday, sending some kids back to preschools and schools in areas with low-to-medium coronavirus infection levels.
According to the Health Ministry proposal, preschools and grades 1-4 and 11-12 will open in cities designated as "green" and "yellow" in the government's "traffic light" color-coding system for morbidity rates.
Some medium-to-high infection cities categorized as "orange" will also see these grades opened, depending on various statistics and provided that at least 70% of its residents aged 50 and up are vaccinated.
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