Israel’s Coronavirus Cabinet Delays Lockdown Decision, Citing Need for More Data

Monday’s Israeli coronavirus cabinet meeting concluded with no decision on loosening or tightening the current nationwide lockdown until there is more data available on morbidity and movement, the Prime Minister’s Office announced. It was decided that lockdown measures would be discussed at next Monday’s gathering when the comprehensive data will be presented (the cabinet is expected to meet again on Thursday but no decision will be made until Monday). The cabinet did agree to extend existing regulations until October 14. At the meeting, the Health Ministry presented a plan for a multistage approach to easing the lockdown in consultation with the National Security Council and health experts. The first stage of the plan would take effect once the “basic reproduction number,” that is, the expected number of cases directly generated by one case, denoted R₀, is reduced to 0.8, and the average number of new cases is reduced to 2,000 per day. As of Tuesday afternoon local time, the number of coronavirus cases in Israel stood at 274,423, with 1,771 deaths and 208,819 recoveries, according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker.