The National Corona Information and Knowledge Center has published a new report on the scope of COVID spread in Israel and recommended that the government make masks mandatory indoors, a policy that was lifted only last week.
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The report, which came out on Tuesday, cited a "real outbreak."
Some local authorities are not waiting for the national government, and the city of Kfar Saba and the Southern Sharon Regional Council have issued instructions making masks mandatory in schools and at graduation parties held in enclosed spaced.
According to the National Corona Information and Knowledge Center, "the virus coefficient and the infections are arriving from abroad – and currently include confirmed cases who arrived from abroad as well as Israelis who contracted the virus in Israel. In the past few days, there has been a rise in the number of confirmed cases, mainly in light of outbreaks in Israel, and the coefficient reflects the state of infection in the country."
The report went on to say that "however, given the high rate of vaccination in Israel, at this stage we still cannot state that the outbreak will be a long-term one, but in light of the numbers that continue to rise, we must take drastic action to cut off chains of infection to bring the outbreak under control, including reinstating some COVID restrictions (masks worn indoors.)"
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry, in conjunction with the Prime Minister's Office, is preparing to instate a system of fines for Israelis who violate COVID travel bans and visit countries Israel has labeled "red" due to high rates of COVID spread and contagious variants, the ministry announced this week.
"In the past few days, we are seeing new COVID infection incidents. Led by the prime minister, on Sunday we convened a special meeting with top officials in the health and transportation ministries and the National Security Council to assess the situation. In the meeting, a decision about a series of immediate steps was taken," Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said.
"When it comes to Israelis visiting banned countries, it turns out that the travel ban, which was established by the previous government, did not include effective enforcement measures. Led by the prime minister, we made some important decisions: within a few days, we will institute stringent enforcement at the airport for those who travel to banned countries, and heavily fine anyone who dismisses the instructions and puts the health of Israeli citizens at risk," Horowitz added.
The current list of countries to which Israelis are not permitted to travel includes Argentina Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, and India. Countries under a travel warning, but will not entail fines for Israelis who visit there, include the Seychelles, the United Arab Emirates, and the Maldives.
Of the 264 cases identified in the country since the beginning of June, 112 of them were people who flew into the country, according to the Times of Israel.
Public health and infectious disease experts said health experts say that the majority of new cases stem from the Delta variant of the disease, which origins have been traced back to India and are thought to have been transported back to Israel by travelers returning from abroad.
On Monday, the Health Ministry announced that 88 new cases of coronavirus had been identified by 5 p.m., the highest daily number seen in months.
The figure is nearly double the 48 cases recorded on Sunday.
The last time more than 80 cases were recorded in a single day was April 29, when 94 cases were identified.
The final daily figure is likely to be even higher.
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The city of Binyamina remains the epicenter of this resumption of the epidemic, with 43 confirmed cases, making it the first city to be marked "yellow" or medium risk in months.
There are 38 cases in Jerusalem, 36 in Modi'in, and 16 cases in Tel Aviv, with all other places in the country having 15 or fewer cases.
There are a total of 387 cases nationwide, and 51 people hospitalized, including 24 in serious condition.
Ran Saar, head of the Maccabi healthcare provider, told Army Radio that he had seen a sharp increase in the number of people getting vaccinated and that authorities predicted the numbers to rise.
Saar said people shouldn't be too worried about the resumption of the outbreak, which he attributed to the Delta variant, as long as the government took care to enforce quarantines and ensure that people get tested.
However, also on Monday, head of the World Health Organization's health emergencies program Dr. Mike Ryan said at a news conference that the Delta variant was the "fastest and fittest" COVID strain yet identified, and would "pick off" vulnerable people, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates.
A sub-variant of the original "Indian variant" of COVID, Delta has the potential for greater lethality because it's more efficient in the way it transmits between humans and it will eventually find those vulnerable individuals who will become severely ill, have to be hospitalized and potentially die," Ryan said.
i24NEWS contributed to this report
