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Israeli Government Springs Into Action Over Coronavirus Outbreak Threat
Israeli Prime MInister Naftali Bennett during a news conference at Ben Gurion International Airport announces new measures to stem the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus on June 22, 2021. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli Government Springs Into Action Over Coronavirus Outbreak Threat

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announces special measures after officials warn of alarming spike in new infections

Israel on Tuesday was forced to confront what had seemed for months to be far away in the rearview mirror – a possible new outbreak of the coronavirus.

“We’re witnessing the beginning of the spreading of the new delta variant. We’re going to try to cut this off quickly,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday evening at a special news conference held at Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport.

“There is no need to panic, but this thing must be extinguished,” Bennett, who assumed office just last week, said. “It’s up to us, to how we behave. We do not want to return to sweeping nationwide shutdowns.”

On Monday, 125 new infections were diagnosed, after over two months during which that figure remained in the single digits or low double digits.

Some 360 Israelis currently are hospitalized with the virus, with 24 in serious condition. The positivity rate of all tests was 0.3% on Monday, compared to the 0.1% rate registered consistently in recent weeks.

While at the airport, Bennett announced a string of new measures to be implemented and enforced immediately. These include mandating masks for all passengers passing through Ben Gurion, requiring all people entering Israel to test negative for COVID-19, and reassembling the nation’s coronavirus cabinet, which was dissolved last month.

Several towns in Israel have witnessed a sharp spike in morbidity in recent days, with citizens returning home from trips abroad and flouting quarantine instructions, infecting dozens with the highly contagious delta variant.

Experts believe Israel is well positioned to face, and eventually overcome, the potential new wave, thanks in large part to its high vaccination rates.

Over 5.1 million Israeli residents, out of a population of 9 million, have received both of the required Pfizer shots, with the vast majority of those not yet inoculated children and youth who have not been authorized to get vaccinated.

“Due to the rise in morbidity in coronavirus among children in recent days, and considering the latest outbreaks in several schools … as a result of different variants, a special meeting was held at the Health Ministry … on the issue of expanding vaccinations to 12-to-15-year-olds,” a health ministry spokesperson told The Media Line.

The ministry’s officials “have decided to recommend the expansion of the vaccine’s administration” to those ages, the statement added.

Over the past few months, Israel’s previous government gradually lifted the myriad restrictions put in place since March of last year, when the global pandemic arrived in full force.

There is no need to panic, but this thing must be extinguished/ It’s up to us, to how we behave. We do not want to return to sweeping nationwide shutdowns.

After a seemingly endless cycle of nationwide closures, sweeping mask-wearing mandates and heavy fines imposed on citizens violating emergency government decrees, the country’s streets, shops, schools, entertainment and sporting venues and places of business all returned to normal over the spring and early summer.

“There’s no way they’ll bring back shutdowns and punishments like last year. No way,” Eitan Ben-Dayan, who owns a barbershop in Jerusalem, told The Media Line.

“Everyone is vaccinated, there’s no need. We won’t stand another wave of closures and I honestly don’t think [the government] wants to, or is going to do that,” he said Tuesday.

Bennett, after touring the state’s largest port of entry along with his health, transport and public security ministers, echoed the peoples’ sentiments.

“We can do this together, and avoid going back to the steps we’ve come to know,” he said. “Let’s put this behind us.”

 

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