Health Ministry Director General Hezi Levy said, "I don't know if there will be a lockdown over Hanukkah, but we are identifying an increase in morbidity, and it could lead to new restrictions." Levy made the remarks at a special press conference on Thursday following the decision by the so-called "coronavirus cabinet" to allow for the southern city of Eilat as well as the Dead Sea to be designated "tourism islands," as well as increase the limit on customers allowed inside stores and allow for the opening of zoos.
"Today, 780 verified patients have been identified out of around 50,000 tests. There is a slight increase in morbidity," he said, noting that the number had remained stable among younger members of the population.
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"The rate of reproduction is now hovering around 1.08, a higher value than the target we set out for moving forward with the framework for easing restrictions. As for hospitalized [patients], there is a plateau in the number of serious patients, without any sharp increases or decreases," he said.
Levy said that "absent a catastrophe," fifth- and sixth-grade students would be allowed to return to in-person learning on Tuesday as planned. He called on the teachers of those students to be tested for the coronavirus before returning to school.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization's Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge claimed that states could avoid a lockdown if their citizens adhered to coronavirus guidelines. Lockdowns should be a "last resort," he said. "There would be no need for lockdowns if 95% of people wore masks, instead of the 60% who are now," he said.
He noted that hundreds of millions of people around the world were living under various kinds of lockdown, and that this was putting pressure on healthcare systems and leading to mass unemployment, an increase in psychological problems, drug use, and gender-based violence. He noted that last week, over 29,000 people died of the virus, or one person every 17 seconds, and that over the past two weeks, Europe had seen an 18% increase in coronavirus-related deaths.
While Kluge said progress on developing a vaccine for the virus was encouraging, the world must not become complacent, as they would not be available over the winter, and as result, many countries could still see their healthcare systems collapse under the pressure of a sharp spike in infections.
In Israel, there have been 327,435 cases of the coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic, 8,454 of which are active. The infection rate stands at 1.4%. There are 318 people in serious condition in Israel, 123 of whom are on ventilators. Thus far, 2,742 have died of the virus.
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