Nearly 5 million Israelis have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and 3.6 million Israelis have received the second dose. Israel's vaccination campaign, successful on a global scale, has allowed us to imagine the very early beginnings of the end of this terrible pandemic that has caused Israel and all of humanity countless deaths, extreme suffering, and harm on a historic scale to the economy, education, employment, and society in general. Further acceleration and reinforcement of the vaccination campaign could bolster the chances of our exiting the crisis, albeit gradually and very cautiously, and seeing a return to normal in the foreseeable future.
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Yet we aren't out of the woods just yet, and we must not celebrate so prematurely so that doing so becomes dangerous and fatal. The coronavirus pandemic is still hitting the world hard, and Israel has yet to come out of the third wave of the outbreak. The virus is continuing to quickly spread across the country, with thousands of new cases confirmed daily, hundreds of people in serious condition, and over 5,800 victims claimed by COVID-19 so far.
There are countries around the world that wouldn't dare to exit a lockdown, let alone authorize the kind of opening Israel has, under current conditions. That is why the opening of restaurants, cafes, hotels, and cultural and sporting events this week in adherence with coronavirus guidelines demands extreme caution, self-discipline, and widespread enforcement.
Up until now, the State of Israel and its citizens have not exactly excelled in these parameters, to say the least. The hasty and reckless exits from the previous lockdowns resulted in disaster.
Israel charged toward a third wave due to mass violations of coronavirus restrictions combined with a change in perception as a result of the welcome mass vaccination of its citizens. Many Israelis believe the pandemic is behind us and that we can now disregard all of the restrictions and guidelines in place. We must remember that while the vaccines protect us from death and serious illness at very high rates, they don't offer hermetic protection from infection or the infection of others.
Today marks the beginning of an advanced, joyous, and hopeful stage of the exit from the third lockdown, but not the third wave, to a life alongside the coronavirus in which millions of Israelis have already been vaccinated. However, the guidelines for exiting the lockdown have gone dangerously beyond what the Health Ministry demanded. The government is allowing middle-schoolers to return to in-person learning, problematic mixing of vaccinated and unvaccinated people [in restaurants, hotels, and event halls], and the accelerated opening of Ben-Gurion Airport to thousands of people entering and exiting the country, the latter of which will constantly threaten the country with the import of additional variants the Pfizer vaccine may not prove effective against.
Although Israel has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and the number of seriously ill patients is slowly on the decline, the dangers posed by the coronavirus continue to pose a threat to us all, so much so that senior Health Ministry officials say they may need to demand the imposition of new restrictions, including a fourth lockdown if the pandemic flares up again. It is only if we wise up this time around and strictly adhere to coronavirus orders and updated guidelines on reopening the commerce sector and returning to a more normal kind of life that we will have a chance of living reasonable and tolerable lives alongside the coronavirus. Right now, though, we're a long way off from the day we can declare an end to the pandemic.
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