Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu MOREThe cabinet voted on Sunday to extend the country’s national coronavirus exclusion to at least Friday morning, as Israel is still struggling with high infection rates.
Netanyahu’s office announced the extension of the lockdown that closed most schools and non-essential businesses as it entered its fourth week on Monday local time. The Times of Israel reported.
Officials also decided to keep the country’s only major airport closed until Sunday and to reinstate a mandatory quarantine for those allowed into government quarantine hotels from Tuesday.
The extension is because Israel had predicted coronavirus cases and deaths would decline in mid-January, a prediction that ultimately did not materialize, said Reuters. Israeli officials point to more contagious foreign tensions and non-compliance in the country for the persistently high COVID-19 statistics.
Cabinet officials reportedly spoke of how long to stretch the lockdown, with officials from Netanyahu and the Ministry of Health arguing for at least a week longer, while Defense Secretary Benny Gantz insisted it be finalized by Thursday, according to The Times of Israel. .
Israel has maintained approximately 6,000 new cases of coronavirus per day, achieving one of the highest infection rates among developing countries, The Associated Press reported. Forty percent of current cases involve children and teens, a health ministry official told The Times of Israel.
In total, the country has counted more than 643,000 COVID-19 cases, leading to nearly 4,800 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 3 million people in Israel have received the first dose of vaccine, of which more than 1.7 million have received both doses.
Cabinet officials announced the decision after busy funerals for two prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Jerusalem, who defied the restrictions of up to 10 people for outside meetings. Both rabbis died of COVID-19, according to reports cited by the AP.
Netanyahu, facing an election in March, has been criticized by opponents for not responding rigorously enough to large gatherings of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who as a community make up 40 percent of the new cases, but 11 percent of the population.