A total of 14,908 coronavirus tests processed on Saturday identified 395 new confirmed cases in Israel, a 2.6% positive rate – a dramatic drop, the Health Ministry reported Sunday.
As of Sunday morning, 1,217 COVID patients were hospitalized nationwide, including 673 patients who were listed in serious condition. Of the patients in serious condition, 237 were on ventilators.
No new deaths were reported after midnight between Saturday and Sunday, leaving Israel's death toll at 2,190 since the start of the COVID epidemic in the country.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
There were 33,727 active or symptomatic cases. Thus far, 302,832 Israelis have contracted the virus, and 266,910 have recovered.
Meanwhile, as Israel begins to make its way out of a second lockdown, Talmud Torah schools in the Haredi sector opened on Sunday morning, under instructions from Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most important spiritual leaders in the Lithuanian Haredi community – and against the explicit orders of the Health Ministry and national coronavirus coordinator Professor Ronni Gamzu.
The Talmud Torah institutions were reportedly operating in Jerusalem, Modi'in Illit, Betar Illit, and Rechasim.
As part of the government's preparations to begin ushering the country out of lockdown, hundreds of police officers have been deployed throughout Bnei Brak, a city still coded red under the Health Ministry's stoplight plan. The government is trying to persuade the city's mostly Haredi residents to cooperate with public health regulations but suspected that Kanievsky's instructions would resonate, and therefore sent in police.
The Israel Police issued a statement, according to which "Enforcement is being handled with the directors of schools and, of course, the children. We hope that reason, responsibility, and concern of the educators and parents for the health of the children will help.
"There is something absurd in the police needing to ensure the health of children in schools, and not the parents or educators. We expect that the relevant government ministries will assist," the police said.
Over the weekend, negotiations between Gamzu and Haredi leaders fell apart, leading Kanievsky to order Talmud Torah schools and yeshivas for high school-age students to open on Sunday morning.
Gamzu said in response: "Don't do that. If you do, we will have to enforce [the regulations]."
Haredi representatives claimed that they had reached an agreement with Gamzu and Maj. Gen. Roni Numa, who is overseeing the management of the COVID crisis in the Haredi sector for the IDF Home Front Command, about how and when Talmud Torah and "little" yeshivas would open, but that in a Cabinet meeting on Friday, the plan was rejected, prompting the Haredim to take the law into their own hands.
One senior Haredi official told Israel Hayom: "We aren't trying to put on a show of strength, or wage a revolt against the government or give them the finger. We did everything we could. We held talks, we put together a plan. Experts approve it and the ministers from Blue and White and the attorney general rejected it on Friday. We will not forgo Torah study because of political considerations and a war against [Prime Minister] Netanyahu."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
