Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced on Wednesday that Israelis would no longer be required to wear masks indoors, two years after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The scrapping of mandatory masks in closed public venues will go into force at 8:00 p.m. Saturday, subject to approval by a Knesset oversight committee, a government statement said.
Horowitz said: "The cancellation of the mask mandate in closed places outside of hospitals and nursing homes is the continued policy of life alongside the coronavirus. Without panic, responsibly, and with consideration. The policy has proven itself, and this is how we will continue. We will carefully track the disease, and we will provide all means of defense: vaccines, testing, and medicine. We will maintain health as well as routine life."
Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee Chairman Gilad Rabbi Kariv called the decision "an important step on the path to a return to routine and it is a necessary decision in light of morbidity data. This decision constitutes a continuation of the measured and responsible policy that characterized the handling of the coronavirus crisis in recent months, within the framework of the new law prepared by the Constitution [Law, and Justice] Committee. I call on the government to examine at this time the policy of pre-flight testing and the adaptation of Israeli policy to what is customary in most Western countries."
Sourasky Medical Center Director and former coronavirus chief Professor Ronni Gamzu on Tuesday criticized the government's coronavirus policies on Facebook. He said the time had come for Israel to rescind existing COVID restrictions and cancel the mask mandate like the rest of the world.
"Many of the Israelis now traveling overseas are surprised to discover how the coronavirus has disappeared from most countries," Gamzu wrote. "The time has come to do the right thing in Israel, too, and remove the restrictions, the masks, including indoors, certainly for students, everywhere in fact because the coronavirus today is no longer as dangerous as it was in the past. Almost none of the countries request a vaccination certificate, green passes, PCR or antigen tests. Rightfully so, because its contribution to COVID morbidity is extremely marginal.
"There is no need to continue coronavirus testing upon entering Israel or anywhere else for healthy people and certainly not to keep tens of thousands of people in quarantine until [they receive a negative test] result. The operation and the run-around are a waste of money and citizens' freedom. So if everything is correct and justified in all of Europe and America, why are we sticking with it here in Israel? Why would I and many others have to pay 60 shekels (around $16.90) for a test upon returning to Israel when this is done nowhere in the vaccinated Western world? It's been reported that nearly a million Israelis are leaving and entering Israel around Passover. Won't it be a shame for citizens to pay 60 million shekels to realize an out-of-date policy?" he asked.
Masks will still be required of people in high infection-risk venues like flights, hospitals and care homes, the statement said.
Israelis have not had to wear masks outdoors since April 2021. Last June, the indoor mask mandate was dropped for two weeks, and restored due to a surge in the Delta variant.
The number of daily COVID-19 infections reported to Israeli health authorities has fallen to around 4,500 from more than 15,000 in late March.
The number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients has also dropped, standing at 222 on Tuesday compared with 296 in late March, according to health ministry figures.
Some 64% of Israel's 9.4 million inhabitants are considered to be vaccinated, the ministry said. Israel began administering a fourth dose of the vaccine in January. Israel's total death toll from the pandemic stands at 10,647 people.
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