JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will enter a three-week nationwide lockdown starting Friday to end the spread of coronavirus after a second wave of new cases, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
During the lockdown coming during the Jewish high holiday season, Israelis will have to stay within 500 meters of their homes, but can travel to workplaces, which will be allowed to operate on a limited basis.
Schools and shopping malls will be closed but supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open. The public sector will work with fewer employees, but non-government offices and businesses will not need to close until they accept customers.
Indoor gatherings are limited to 10 people and no more than 20 people outside.
“I know that measures will create a very high price accuracy for all of us,” Netanyahu said in a televised address. “This is not the kind of holiday we use. And we certainly won’t be able to celebrate with our extended families. “
The finance ministry said the lockdown would hurt the economy, which has been plunged into recession following the virus, at an estimated 5 6.5 billion (1. 1.88 billion).
Netanyahu, who has faced growing criticism for handling the coronavirus crisis, said he instructed his finance minister to come up with a new economic package to help businesses hurt by the lockdown.
Israel announced a tougher lockdown in April when the virus first arrived, followed by daily double-digit cases in a population of nine million.
But as the economy reopened, so did the daily infections, which passed 1,000,000 last week. On Saturday, 2,715 new cases were reported. Since the outbreak, 1,108 people have died.
The country’s health system “raised the red flag” a few days ago, urging the government to take action, Netanyahu said.
“Dozens of areas are being suppressed in the epidemic circle,” Health Ministry Director-General Haze Levy said in a radio interview earlier on Sunday.
“We are going to impose serious sanctions, but they will be able to control this wave and not bring us to the brink of abyss,” Levy said.
Edited by William McLean, reported by Eri Rabinovich and Jeffrey Heller
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