Israel initiates the third blockade and tries to accelerate vaccination against Covid-19 | World

While the vaccination campaign continues in Israel, the population is subjected to further isolation. Officially, the third lockdown was supposed to take place over two weeks, but health officials hint that the This measure can be extended up to a month, if the amount of daily pollution remains above a thousand.

Prohibition of going beyond a kilometer from home, social isolation, most schools closed, mandatory quarantine to Israelis arriving from abroad and borders closed to all foreigners: the Israeli government has imposed drastic restrictions to try to contain a third wave of Covid-19 in the country.

Most Israelis do not hide their anger at the decision, especially among traders who have seen a slight recovery after a year of heavy losses. It’s no wonder shopping malls threaten to reopen on January 10 anyway.

“We couldn’t be more discouraged. We small merchants do not receive any help from the state, ”laments Nathalie Hirschprung, owner of a bookstore in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the vaccination campaign continues at an accelerated rate in Israel. The government aims to carry out 150,000 daily injections starting next week to immunize a quarter of the population in just one month. However, to meet the goal, the country depends on the delivery of 14 million doses from the Pfizer and Moderna laboratories.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed optimism about the strategy on Saturday (26). “We are in the middle of a giant vaccination campaign, unprecedented in the world. I ask you to respect this brief lockdown. Together, this will allow us to be the first to defeat the coronavirus,” he said.

In total, Covid-19 has left more than 400,000 infected and 3,210 dead since the start of the health crisis. The country even had one of the highest per capita pollution rates in the world. After a slight decline, pollution rose again this year, with more than 3,000 new cases a day in recent days.

By Netanyahu’s calculations, with the bold vaccination strategy, Israel is expected to emerge from the health crisis in March 2021, just before the new elections scheduled for March 23. With the dissolution of parliament on Tuesday (22), the population will be summoned to the fourth election in just two years.

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