Coronavirus: Israel sets new daily death record since pandemic began | the Chronicle

The Israeli government reported on Monday that 68 people have died in the past 24 hours from coronavirus, the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic. on the eve of the entry into force of announced the closure for one week of Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, in order to contain the spread of Covid19.

“We are ahead of the world, we will close the country hermetically”Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during the opening of the cabinet session, according to state television KAN.

Between the rules arranged the status of normal passenger flights will be canceled and only those defined as “special”.

The airport authority has told foreign airlines to prepare to reduce and even close the air routes in a few hours.

Netanyahu has called for delaying the arrival of new immigrants to the country, a measure questioned by the political ark.

Integration Minister Pnina Tamano Shata, who opposed the airport closure, said: “We have never stopped aliyah (Jewish immigration) since the state was established.”

The Prime Minister replied that new immigrants can wait.

Also the member of the Knesset (Parliament) Arieh Dery, indicted against the Prime Minister.

“Maybe you should start listening to other voices. We have to take into account the Aliya organized this coming week”, said the parliamentarian in reference to one of the pillars of the Zionist enterprise.

In parallel, the health ministry has reported 68 new deaths, a daily maximum since the start of the pandemic.

The report also includes 6,015 new infections, totaling 4,478 deaths and 605,397 cases.

In addition, there are 1,174 patients in serious condition, 420 in critical condition and 325 connected to ventilators, rechoed the Europa Press news agency.

As for vaccines, 2,637,279 of 9.3 million Israelis have already received the first dose and at least 1,189,813 have completed both.

So far in January, 51,218 children and adolescents up to the age of 17 have been infected, according to official data.

These numbers reflect the presence of the British mutation in Israeli territory, which not only spreads faster, but is also more violent and fatal.

Until now, it was said that minors were less infected, but in recent weeks a change has been recorded, unexpected for specialists.

The president of the Israeli Medical Association, Zeev Feldman, warned that “Serious patients continue to arrive and they are younger and more serious, unfortunately also with an increase in the number of deaths”, according to the AJN agency.

Health service providers have announced that they will start vaccinating their members from the age of 16.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip await inoculants, that it could take at least a few more months to reach a large enough part of society.

However, infection rates in the two territories remain relatively low.