It's official: Israel has lost over 5,000 men and women to COVID-19. As of Friday morning, the death toll since the pandemic hit Israel early last year stood at 5,019.
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Israel currently has 84,060 active cases of the coronavirus, 1,095 of which are serious, according to Health Ministry data. Of those in serious condition, 326 are on ventilators. Of the 84,055 coronavirus tests carried out, Thursday, 7,168 were found to be positive, for an infection rate of 8.8%.
Due to the high morbidity rate, the government approved an extension to Israel's third national lockdown, which is now set to expire 7 a.m. Sunday.
During the contentious meeting, Defense Minister and Blue and White party head Benny Gantz accused of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of engaging in a "political and health filibuster."
"The truth must be told. The government meeting should have been held yesterday, but you continue to draw things out," he said.
Netanyahu replied that the meeting had been delayed due to Gantz's stipulation legislation to increase fines for violations of coronavirus guidelines be passed for the lockdown to be extended.
Health Ministry officials had sought to extend the lockdown to Sunday night, to protect the 200,000 people that had received the second dose of the vaccine one week ago and as a result would not be fully protected from the virus. Netanyahu supported their demand.
Gantz, on the other hand, argued the lockdown was no longer effective and called for an end to the lockdown.
Finance Minister Israel Katz voiced his support for Gantz.
"Today, we heard [Health Ministry pandemic response team member] Professor [Ran] Belcer say the lockdowns aren't able to solve the problem. There are no assumptions right now, there are unfounded hopes."
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Health Ministry Director Hezi Levy conceded that "the lockdown is a bit disappointing, but I don't want to think what would have happened without it. You can't say the lockdown didn't help."
Starting Sunday morning, the restriction on movement to 1,000 meters from one's home will be lifted. Sectors in which one service provider works on one client, such as hair and beauty salons, will be allowed to open, as will businesses that do not meet with the public.
Restaurants will now be allowed to offer takeout service.
No decision has yet been made about whether or not to open schools, and the cabinet is slated to vote on the matter by phone next week.
National parks and nature sites will reopen to the public, and bed and breakfast businesses will be allowed to accept reservations from nuclear families.
On Sunday, the cabinet is scheduled to meet to decide on a framework for when and how to allow businesses to reopen.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry expanded its vaccination campaign to include Israelis aged 16 following a drop in the inoculation rate in recent days.
Netanyahu has called on those aged 50 and over to get vaccinated, saying, "Morbidity in Israel is very high. Unfortunately, there is only a moderate decrease in [the number of] seriously ill patients," which he said was why hospitals continue to be overwhelmed.
He said, "The vaccines work. If you go and get vaccinated, we can slowly exit the coronavirus and carefully and responsibly open up our economy. This is the order of the hour. I am asking for your enlistment to bring people and to get vaccinated. We have the ability to do something no other country has."
So far, 3,370,951 Israelis, nearly 36% of the population, have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 1,965,972 have received their second dose.
Meanwhile, a Health Ministry official who spoke to Israel Hayom said, "We must continue with a very tight lockdown, like in the first lockdown, of at least two weeks to a month. In this time, we could vaccinate another million to two million Israelis. "If we don't continue with a tight and prolonged lockdown," the official warned, "Israel could see thousands more seriously ill patients and dead."
