Statistics from the Health Ministry released after dark on Saturday showed 1,021 new cases of coronavirus were recorded since the start of Shabbat on Friday night, and the number of infections since the start of the pandemic exceeded 60,000. Seven other deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 455.
Of the 33,160 active cases, there were 312 people in serious condition, 94 of whom were on ventilators. Another 158 were in moderate condition and the rest have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic.
According to the ministry, 60,496 virus cases have been recorded in Israel since the start of the outbreak, and 26,882 have been recovered from COVID-19. The ministry said 23,154 tests were conducted on Friday and 4,208 through Saturday. Test levels generally drop significantly over the weekend.
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Israel has seen a marked increase in cases in recent weeks. On Friday, the figures from the Ministry of Health showed 2,022 new cases in the last 24 hours.
Despite the increase in the number of coronavirus infections, the percentage of people killed by COVID-19 is notably lower, Ran Balicer, an epidemiologist and executive with Clalit Health Services, told Channel 12 news on Saturday. While the death rate was 2.1 percent during the initial outbreak, it is now 0.8%, Balicer said.
Balicer said the possible explanations for this are that authorities are now detecting a larger number of asymptomatic carriers and are doing a better job of protecting at-risk groups. Hospitals have also improved their ability to treat sick people with the virus, he added.
On Friday, the New York Times ranked Israel sixth in the world in new daily cases per 1 million people, at just under 200 a day in that proportion. The United States was just above just over 200 per 1 million, followed by South Africa, Panama, Bahrain and Oman, which led the group with about 300 cases per day per 1 million residents.
Israel closed deals over the weekend starting Friday in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus.
The restrictions aimed at curbing the coronavirus went into effect at 5 p.m. Friday and will remain in effect until early Sunday morning, after a tumultuous week that saw some of the planned government shutdowns revoked by a Knesset panel.
Customers in a Tel Aviv cafe on July 22, 2020 (Miriam Alster / Flash90)
Shopping malls were closed over the weekend, as were most stores, markets, open-air malls, beauty salons, and gyms. They will be allowed to reopen at 5 am on Sunday.
Restaurants were allowed to continue their operations under existing rules, which allow up to 20 diners indoors and 30 outdoors. The beaches and pools will also remain open.
Unlike the national closings in March and April, there were no limits to leaving home.
Supermarkets, pharmacies and public transport are not affected by the closure. Museums are also not affected, except those for children, exhibition spaces, zoos, cable cars, tourist sites and attractions.
Cultural events, event rooms, bars and discos are already closed until further notice. Meetings are currently allowed for up to 10 people indoors and 20 people outdoors. Synagogues can organize prayers with no more than 10 faithful.
The Knesset Coronavirus Committee continued this week with its series of reversals of cabinet-imposed restrictions, ruling in several separate decisions that restaurants, attractions, pools and beaches could remain open over the weekend and that gyms may reopen on Sunday morning.
Illustrative: People with face masks walk and shop at the Mamilla shopping center near the Old City of Jerusalem on July 6, 2020 (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
The committee has said that the Ministry of Health has not provided sufficient evidence to justify the closure of these places, but health officials say the origin of a significant part of the infections is unknown, forcing them to partially rely on Global infection data to decide risky locations
The Knesset on Thursday passed a law that gives the cabinet extended powers to impose far-reaching restrictions to curb the coronavirus pandemic, while reducing parliamentary oversight, in a move seen as designed to disavow the Coronavirus Committee.
The so-called Great Coronavirus Act, which takes effect on August 10, reduces the Knesset’s supervisory power and neutralizes the Coronavirus Committee.
Netanyahu had reportedly weighed in on the head of the firing panel, Yifat Shasha-Biton of the Likud, but instead, the new law deprives his committee of its authority to reverse cabinet orders and grants four other panels of the Knesset more limited supervisory powers.
The legislation allows the cabinet to set restrictions on the public, and the Knesset has only 24 hours to approve or reject the regulations before they automatically take effect. In addition, it includes a clause that allows the cabinet to ignore the Knesset and immediately implement measures considered “urgent”, without specifying the criteria for making that determination. Knesset committees in those cases will still be able to reverse the emergency regulations, but only a week, and less than two weeks, after they are approved by the cabinet.
Israel was initially seen as a success story after cracking down on the virus by imposing a tight shutdown in March and April, but saw the pandemic rise to unprecedented levels after reopening schools and lifting almost all restrictions in may.
Experts have blamed too fast a reopening and the lack of an effective contact tracking program as the main factors in the virus unrest.
Michael Bachner contributed to this report.
