Israel to lift almost all coronavirus restrictions from June

Israel’s successful vaccination plan rolled out will allow the country to lift virtually all coronavirus restrictions from next week, in early June, if the Parliament approves the proposal of the Ministry of Health.

This was put forward by the local Minister of Health, Yuli Edelstein, who stressed that the country is gradually “returning to normal”.

“Less than six months ago, we launched the vaccination campaign. Thanks to the excellent work of the health system workers, we are carrying out the best vaccination campaign in the world. We have been reaping our fruits for a long time with low morbidity ”the Israeli official added.

Despite this decision taken by the authorities, Edelstein said that the return to normality comes “with an asterisk”. “The Ministry of Health is working to keep morbidity low and will continue to monitor the situation closely to avoid an epidemic. Of course, if there is an epidemic, we will have to go back, he explained.

The decline in cases allowed authorities to reopen restaurants, bars and sports centers, but only for people with a “green passport,” granted to those who have been vaccinated or have recovered from the coronavirus.

The new rules will allow the entire population – including unvaccinated people – free access.

Since mid-April, it is no longer compulsory to wear a mask in public spaces, but it is compulsory in public transport and in closed places. In principle, the use of the mask will remain compulsory indoors.

More, The entry and exit limits of the country will be maintained. The minister urged Israelis not to travel to countries with high infection rates. And, if necessary, strictly adhere to the various health recommendations, such as social distancing.

For their part, the authorities will be stricter in the analysis of the entries and exits of people to avoid the possible entry of new variants of the coronavirus.

High-risk countries so far include: Ukraine, Ethiopia, Brazil, India, South Africa, Mexico, and Turkey. On Sunday, Israel’s health ministry issued a travel advisory for Argentina, a country which, after a week of records of people infected and dead, has become the third country with the highest number of new infections with covid-19.

Local health authorities have warned in recent weeks that infected people returning from abroad were a major concernespecially because of the frequent cases of people violating quarantine requirements.

Israel launched a rapid vaccination campaign in December, in which more than five million people received two doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.

With a large part of the population vaccinated, Israel could now start vaccinating adolescents between 12 and 15 years old, after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency clearance a few weeks ago to administer the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech to young people in this age group.

Last week, Israel recorded an average of 27 daily cases of covid-19, while the total of active cases fell to just 510.

At the peak of the second and third waves, in October and January, there have been over 70,000 and 80,000 active cases in Israel, respectively. Although the restrictive measures helped reduce the number of infections, the situation was not as promising as it is today.

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