Govt. Tightens Screws on COVID-19 Lockdown

6 January, 2021   |   3 years ago

Jerusalem, 6 January, 2021 (TPS) -- The government voted Tuesday night to tighten the Coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions in Israel to stem the rapid spread of the virus in the country, possibly caused by the UK variant.

After a week and a half of a semi-lockdown, the government announced a series of restrictions that will essentially shut down the country almost completely.

The tight lockdown will be imposed from midnight on Thursday, for at least 14 days, and will include the complete closure of the education system and all non-essential businesses.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting that “we see the Coronavirus running amok around the world. The British mutation is out of control. Britain is now under full lockdown after a massive mortality rate. Unfortunately, the new Coronavirus mutation is also leaping forward with us, but not at the same pace”.

Several cases of the new Coronavirus variant that was first identified in the United Kingdom and which is rapidly spreading around the world were found in Israel and multiple locations around the country.

“The hospitals are warning us that we are entering the most dangerous wave since the outbreak of the pandemic. The Health Ministry and the experts are warning us that we are in an emergency situation and that if we do not act immediately we will lose many hundreds of Israelis – and even more – who will die,” he said.

He called on all citizens of Israel to “make a final effort – together. We will make a tightened and immediate lockdown together with the continuation of the huge vaccines operation.”

“This is how we will save lives. This is how we will be the first in the world to emerge from the coronavirus. This is how we will open our economy and this is how we will get back to living,” he stated.

The Ministry of Health updated Wednesday morning that it documented 8,164 new infection cases over the past 24 hours.

Of the 121,816 tests done on Tuesday, a high 6.8% returned positive.

824 patients hospitalized with Corona are in serious condition, 207 of them are on life support.

Since the outbreak in February 2020, 3, 495 Israelis have died of the virus.