Israel records new peak in coronavirus cases …

A week after the third imprisonment decreed by the government, Israel has registered 5,583 cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours. The figure is the highest since October and comes amid a mass vaccination campaign.

A week ago, the head of the Health portfolio, Yuli Edelstein, launched the vaccination campaign. During the day yesterday, 152,000 people were vaccinated, exceeding the daily goal of inoculating the drug to 150,000 people per day. Since the start of the campaign, the first dose of Pfizer has been inoculated to 650,000 Israelis and is expected to reach one million this week.

The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, assured that some 2.25 million Israelis, more than a quarter of the population, will be vaccinated by the end of January and that by the end of March, the country is expected to vaccinate two-thirds of the population of 9.2 million. Netanyahu assured Israel “will likely be the first” to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

The third confinement was decreed on December 24 and it started last Sunday. The announcement came after confirmation from the Ministry of Health four cases of the new strain of the virus that emerged in the UK. Although in principle it was stipulated that it was for two weeks, the health authorities do not rule out that it could be extended for longer.

During current imprisonment Israelis cannot go more than a mile from their homes, or organize meetings with more than ten people inside and twenty people outside.. Locals and businesses serving the public must remain closed, while restaurants can only offer home delivery services. In addition, the government prohibits the entry of foreigners, while Israelis or residents must quarantine mandatory.

This is the second kidnapping Edelstein has carried out since taking office as Minister of Health on May 17, 2020 after his resignation Yaakov Litzman, the minister who put in place the first lockdown at the end of March 2020. Litzman, who caught the virus in early April, criticized the second lockdown put in place by Edelstein in mid-September.