Israel will ease social restriction measures as part of its third lockdown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic amid an intense vaccination campaign, the prime minister’s office said on Monday. After announcing relief with the opening of certain shops and services last week, the Israeli government decided to authorize from February 21 the opening of street shops, shopping malls, markets, museums and bookstores.
The opening of sports halls, hotels, swimming pools and shows will be allowed to people who have received two doses of the vaccine or who have recovered from COVID-19.
Restaurants and bars will be allowed to open from March 7, if the contamination figures continue to drop, the Prime Minister’s statement said.
International flights, almost all suspended since January 24, will not resume before February 20, the government announced, which also maintains the closure of land borders, except for certain exceptional cases.
Since mid-December, and thanks to an agreement with the giant Pfizer on the sharing of its medical data, Israel has vaccinated more than 3.9 million people (more than 40% of its population), including more than 2.5 million received a second dose.
The country of nine million inhabitants has officially recorded more than 729,000 cases including 5,406 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The Jewish state is currently registering an average of around 4,900 new cases per day compared to around 8,000 in mid-January, according to official figures. And since the vaccine takes some time to be effective, the authorities expect the number of cases, and especially hospitalizations, to decrease in the coming weeks.
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