Israel suspended compulsory mask use after …

Israel lifted the requirement to wear face masks in public places on Sunday, in new relief from coronavirus restrictions after a successful vaccination campaign and prolonged quarantine. Chinstrap, however, will remain mandatory in closed spaces or in large crowds. The government also announced that the country will again receive tourists vaccinated against the coronavirus from May. Israel already has more than 60% of its population vaccinated and has seen a 97% reduction in the contagion curve since last January.

The use of masks will not disappear completely in Israel: they are still mandatory indoors, and the Ministry of Health recommends wearing them in large gatherings or in crowded outdoor spaces as well. In view of this, and perhaps also because of a custom already acquired, many walked around Jerusalem on Sunday with the mask covering their mouths and noses, or placed on the chin to put it on quickly if they had to enter a store or get on a bus.

“I left the house without a mask, but after a while I put it back on because I felt weird, like I was naked”explained Tuval Wolf, a young Israeli who walked on a pedestrianized street in the holy city with his nose and mouth covered. For others like Yoav Menuhin, a 23-year-old student, Going out and “breathing without the mask filter” was “liberating” and even “exciting”, a symbol that illustrates how the country is successfully pursuing its return to a certain normality.

However, Menuhin felt that the population should be “careful” and remember to wear the mask indoors, because “it is not yet known whether the vaccines immunize” against new variants of the virus that could change the situation and increase morbidity. Israel diagnosed seven cases of the viral strain initially detected in India last Friday, of which little is yet known. Authorities are currently investigating whether or not the mutation is resistant to the vaccine and the degree of contagion it could cause.

Faced with this scenario, the Healthcare portfolio called for strict compliance with the new regulations and for maintaining hygiene and social distancing to avoid infections. “The big challenge is to carry the mask in your pocket and to put it on every time you arrive in a closed or crowded place”said national pandemic coordinator Nachman Ash, who warned that the country has yet to achieve mass vaccination despite its obvious progress.

Israel has already vaccinated more than 5.3 million people with at least one dose of the vaccine and nearly five million with both, more than half of its population. of about nine million inhabitants. The vaccination, one of the fastest in the world, has dramatically reduced infections, deaths and critically ill patients. Still, Ash warned that it is necessary to reach “75 percent of the inoculated and / or recovered population” to achieve the desired herd immunization.