Residents in Israel went about barefaced on Sunday after the government scrapped the coronavirus face mask order in another step towards relative normality, thanks to its effective and fast inoculation drive. With around 81% of residents or residents more than 16 – age groups eligible for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in Israel – after receiving doses, transmission and hospitalization are down significantly.
But entry overseas is still limited, and non-immune Israelies who return from abroad must self-isolate, as the fears of the new variants of the virus can challenge the vaccine. Israel’s Ministry of Health said it had detected seven cases of new Indian variants in Israel, whose potency was being considered by health experts.
More:
- South African Variant Can Break Through Pfizer Vaccine, Israeli Study
- Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine 91% Effective In Updated Data
“We lead the world today when it comes to emerging from Coronavirus,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the news reporters. “(But) we still haven’t finished with Coronavirus. It can return.”The use of a protective mask forced by the police in outdoors and public places, ordered a year ago for non-sports activities, was scrapped.
But the Ministry of Health said the requirements still apply to indoor public spaces and urged residents to keep masks. “Breathe freely,” read the headlines covering Israel Hayom’s mass circulation. Teachers are instructed to continue to ventilate classrooms and maintain social distance in lessons and rest. Extra-curricular activities such as children’s theater remain out of bounds.
“There is still a population that is not vaccinated (children under the age of 16) we want to wait,” Health Ministry officials Sharon Alroy-Preis told Army Israeli radio.
Israel calculates East Palestine Jerusalem among 9.3 million inhabitants and has given a vaccine there. 5.2 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas has received vaccine supplies provided by Israel, Russia, United Arab Emirates, and the global Chinese Covax vaccine sharing scheme.
