Given a new spike in confirmed COVID cases in Israel, due mostly to the highly contagious Delta variant, the Corona Cabinet was due to meet on Sunday to discuss additional public health restrictions, after a nationwide indoor mask mandate was reinstated Friday at 12 p.m. and the number of new confirmed COVID cases has topped 100 for six days running.
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Measures to be discussed in the cabinet meeting include limits to public gatherings, increased enforcement of quarantines, and enforcement of travel bans.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced Sunday morning at the weekly cabinet meeting that former GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Roni Numa, who coordinated the handling of COVID in the Haredi community last year, had been named to handle COVID measures at Ben-Gurion International Airport, including testing and enforcement.
Bennett said at the meeting that the government did not intend to instate public health restrictions, but urged the public to get vaccinated.
"We will promote masks rather than restrictions, and vaccinations instead of lockdowns," Bennett said.
The prime minister also urged mayors and local authority heads to "take quick and determined action to promote the vaccination of children age 12 and over."
At a meeting of experts held over the weekend, Dr. Amit Huppert of the Gertner Institute and mathematician Professor Nir Gavish presented a model that showed that if the government did not take steps to curb the current outbreak, Israel would see another wave that would target mainly children and teens, and would affect even Israelis who have been vaccinated.
According to the model, the number of serious cases would peak this coming winter, but would likely not overwhelm hospitals. The model said that if allowed to run its course without any public health intervention, the wave would result in some 1,400 deaths.
Some Health Ministry officials believe that rapid action is called for, whereas others think that the government should wait to see if the outbreak results in a spike in the number of seriously ill patients and patients hospitalized in serious condition.
"We will discuss strategic options, whether there is a need to minimize the spread of the virus in Israel, with all the steps that entails, or take care to protect the healthcare system against a high number of serious cases," a senior Health Ministry official said.
The official said that as of Saturday, there was no talk about mandating masks out of doors.
In addition, there is currently no debate about instating restrictions in communities graded orange or red under the "traffic light" system, and restrictions will be declared on a localized basis for schools where there are new confirmed cases.
"We are very disturbed at the prospect of a spike in cases among children, because pediatric wards are already overcrowded," the official said.
On Sunday morning, the Health Ministry reported 113 new confirmed cases, out of a total 32,703 COVID tests processed in the 24-hour period from Saturday to Sunday. Last week, the average number of new confirmed cases per day stood at 143.
Over half (65) of the new cases confirmed on Saturday were school-age children. Another six cases were confirmed in school staff. Eighteen of the cases were confirmed in Israelis who returned from abroad, including nine who had been in Russia, which is under a travel ban for Israeli citizens due to the high rate of COVID there.
The IDF, which in March declared itself COVID-free, reported that a total of 11 people, including soldiers on compulsory service, professional military personnel, and IDF employees, had tested positive for COVID and had mild cases.
Under the Health Ministry's traffic light system, Kfar Saba, Herzliya, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Tzofim, and Aviel were all downgraded from green to yellow starting Sunday. Modiin-Maccabim-Reut and Kochav Yair were graded orange, while Binyamina and Givat Ada were designated red.
A total of 26 COVID patients were hospitalized in serious condition on Sunday, of whom 17 were on ventilators.
Since the pandemic reached Israel in early 2020, 6,429 Israelis have died of the virus. A total of 5,538,209 Israelis have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, and over 5.1 million have received both doses.
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