Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin (Bibi) NetanyahuMOREThe cabinet voted Sunday to extend the national coronavirus blockade until at least Friday morning as Israel continues to face high infection rates.
Netanyahu’s office announced the extension of the closure that has closed most non-essential schools and businesses when it entered its fourth week on Monday, local time. The Times of Israel reported.
Officials also decided to keep the nation’s only major airport closed until Sunday and reinstate a mandatory quarantine for those allowed inside government quarantine hotels starting Tuesday.
The extension comes as Israel had predicted that coronavirus cases and deaths would decrease by mid-January, a prediction that was not fulfilled, according to Reuters. Israeli officials point to more contagious foreign strains and their non-compliance in the country to continue high COVID-19 statistics.
Cabinet officials reportedly faced time to stretch the closure, while Netanyahu and Health Ministry officials discussed at least one more week, while Defense Minister Benny Gantz pressed for it to be concluded. on Thursday at the latest, according to the Times of Israel
Israel has maintained about 6,000 new cases of coronavirus a day, reaching one of the highest infection rates among developing countries. The Associated Press reported. Forty percent of current cases involve children and adolescents, according to a Health Ministry official to cabinet members, according to The Times of Israel.
Overall, the country has accounted for more than 643,000 cases of COVID-19, causing nearly 4,800 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 3 million people in Israel have received the first dose of vaccine, and more than 1.7 million have received both doses.
Cabinet officials announced the decision following the mass funerals of two prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Jerusalem, who defied restrictions on up to ten people for external meetings. Both rabbis died of COVID-19, according to reports cited by the AP.
Netanyahu, who faces an election in March, has been criticized by opponents for not responding strictly enough to large gatherings of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who as a community account for 40 percent of new cases but 11 percent of the population. .