The Israelis came out in the open on Sunday after the order to wear outdoor masks was canceled in another step towards relative normalcy thanks to the country’s massive vaccination against COVID-19.
With approximately 81% of citizens or residents over the age of 16, the age group eligible for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine (PFE.N), (22UAy.DE) in Israel, which has received doses, infections and hospitalizations fall sharply.
But the entry of foreigners is still limited and non-immune Israelis returning from abroad must isolate themselves, as variants of the virus can challenge the vaccine. read more The Ministry of Health said it had detected seven cases of a new Indian variant in Israel, whose potency was being assessed.
“We are now at the forefront of the world when it comes to getting out of the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters. “(But) we’re not done with the coronavirus yet. It may come back.”
Wearing of outdoor protective masks, ordered a year ago for non-exercise activities, was dismissed by police. But the health ministry said the requirement still applied to indoor public spaces and urged citizens to have masks on hand.
“Breathing Freely,” read the headline of the cover of the mass-circulation newspaper Israel Hayom.
“Being without a mask for the first time in a long time feels weird. But it’s very good,” said Amitai Hallgarten, 19, while sunbathing in a park. “If I need to mask myself inside to end this, I’ll do everything I can.”
With Israeli kindergartens, elementary and high school students were already returning to class, high school students who had stayed home or had attended class sporadically returned to pre-pandemic schedules.
Teachers were instructed to continue to ventilate classrooms and maintain social distancing in lessons and breaks. Extracurricular activities such as children’s theaters continue to be out of bounds.
“We remain an unvaccinated population (children under the age of 16) that we want to safeguard,” Sharon Alroy-Preis, an official with the Ministry of Health, told Israel Army Radio.
Israel has the Palestinians of East Jerusalem among its 9.3 million population and vaccines have been administered there.
The 5.2 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have received a limited supply of vaccines provided by Israel, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, the global COVAX vaccine sharing system and China.
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