Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israelis on Sunday not to let their guard down despite the emerging vaccine for COVID-19, just hours before ministers were to decide on whether a nationwide curfew should be imposed.
"We signed an agreement with Pfizer to receive eight million vaccine doses for four million citizens of Israel. Even though more work is yet before us, there are other obstacles and it will take time, we can say that we see the light at the end of the tunnel," Netanyahu said at the start of the cabinet meeting on Sunday. "I would like to emphasize that despite the encouraging headlines about the arrival of the vaccines, they should not lead to complacency. This does not mean we should stop adhering to the Health Ministry directives, at least until the vaccines arrive, and even afterward."
Israel emerged last week from its second nationwide lockdown, with stores and businesses reopening in some limited capacity. But a full return to normalcy is still far off, with more severe restrictions expected in the coming days in the wake of increased morbidity and a rising reproduction rate for the virus.
As ministers prepared to deliberate on the new measures on Sunday, national coronavirus coordinator Professor Nachman Ash warned that the proposed night-time curfew would be ill-advised.
"Such measures cannot be effective on their own," he said. "It would be hard to gauge their impact on morbidity, and in most cases, curfews – whether limited to a specific sector or time of day – are usually insufficient and require complementary steps," he said in a statement issued by his team.
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