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On Sunday, Israel began a near-complete shutdown that will last for at least two weeks, in a step that is the third of its kind and aims to curb the rapid increase in the number of new cases of the Coronavirus in a country that began ago. a week with great momentum, a large-scale vaccination campaign.
The closure went into effect at 17:00 (15:00 GMT) for a period of two weeks, which can be extended for two more weeks in case the goal of reducing the rate of new infections of the more than three thousand daily injuries to less than a thousand.
A thousand meters
Under the new measure, residents of the Hebrew state are prohibited from traveling more than 1,000 meters from their place of residence, with some exceptions such as buying food, exercising and receiving medical care, including the Covid-19 vaccine.
In the spring, Israel imposed the first lockdown to fight the epidemic, then resorted to the same measure in September, after its HIV infection rate became one of the highest in the world.
But unlike the previous two occasions, schools will continue education by mixing classroom lessons with online homeschooling.
On the other hand, most stores must close their doors to customers and replace it with home delivery service, while professional sectors in which employees do not deal with the public face-to-face can continue to work, but with the condition that no more than 50% of employees come to the workplace.
On Sunday morning, the Mahani Yehuda shopping market in Jerusalem was packed with shoppers who rushed to buy their belongings before the general closure went into effect, in a scene rarely familiar to me on the first day of the week. Jewish, this open-air market.
“As far as we are concerned, our shop is open,” said a spice vendor in response to a question from Agence France-Presse about whether or not it will close its doors.
As for travelers, the pre-closure procedures will remain in effect after the closure, and are based on imposing a mandatory quarantine on all arrivals from abroad – with some exceptions – in hotels identified by the authorities.
As of Sunday, the Hebrew state has recorded more than 400,000 cases of the virus, including 3,210 deaths.
Parallel to this drastic measure, the Israeli authorities are continuing a national vaccination campaign that began with great momentum on December 19. As of Sunday morning, some 280,000 people had received the first dose of two doses of the Pfizer-Bionic vaccine.
– ‘National pride’ –
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a tweet on Twitter: “National pride: Israel is the world champion in vaccination,” attaching the tweet to a graphic showing the Hebrew state that is the leader in the countries that to date they have vaccinated the largest percentage of their population (3.23%).
Netanyahu, who received the vaccine on the first day of the vaccination campaign, said on Saturday that this campaign is “unrivaled in the world” and aims to vaccinate a quarter of the nine million people in the Jewish state in one month. , that is, “an average of 150 thousand vaccines per day … Once this stage is completed, we will be able to get out of the Crown crisis in 30 days.”
He added: “Please adhere to the short and strict closing instructions that we impose through them, because these two issues allow us to be the first among the countries of the world to emerge from the Crown crisis.”
According to the prime minister’s calculations, the epidemic crisis will end in early March, that is, before the early legislative elections scheduled for March 23.
Netanyahu said he spoke with the heads of pharmaceutical companies that have developed vaccines against Covid-19 and that they are confident in their companies’ ability to provide the doses necessary for the Hebrew state to meet this specific schedule.
According to Arnon Afek, CEO of Sheba Hospital near Tel Aviv, the vaccination campaign will not only help Israel end the pandemic, but will also save lives.
“We believe that we could be the first country in the world to achieve herd immunity,” Afek said.
“After we can vaccinate all people over 60, which is the group that today registers the most serious cases and deaths, we will see a great relief in our health system,” he added.
