Israel Mulls Lifting More Corona Restrictions

After last week reopening preschools, kindergartens, and large parts of the business sector, the Israeli government on Sunday will discuss further lockdown alleviations, as the country’s coronavirus figures continue to improve. The cabinet will determine whether to allow elementary schools to accept students starting next week, after discovering that the Education and Finance ministries have somehow, eight months into the pandemic, failed to prepare and adjust classrooms for the new norm. Over the weekend, the number of new cases declined further, to under 200 per day, despite a slight uptick in the rate of positive tests. The number of serious cases and deaths has also decreased dramatically over the past two weeks, following the imposing of a second national closure. On Saturday night, tens of thousands of protesters returned to the bridges and intersections across the country, as well as to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s official Jerusalem residence. Demonstrators demanded that Netanyahu resign from office for his alleged mishandling of the outbreak, as well as for his alleged corruption, for which he is currently standing trial.