Israel ended its mandate for outdoor masks on Sunday, now that about 80 percent of the adult population has received both doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, reports said.
“It feels strange not to have a mask for the first time in a long time. But it’s a really good weird, ”Amitai Hallgarten, 19, told Reuters.
“If I have to be masked inside to end this, I’ll do whatever I can.”
At the start of the pandemic last year, Israel required residents to wear face covers while outside, as long as they weren’t playing sports. But now that nearly 5 million people in Israel have received the two-dose vaccine, health officials are starting to relax restrictions, Reuters reported.
“The infection rate in Israel is very low thanks to the successful vaccination campaign in Israel, and therefore it is possible to alleviate [restrictions], Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said in a statement.
In January, Israel struggled with about 10,000 new infections a day, but amid an increase in vaccinations, that number has dropped to about 200 a day and hospital admissions and deaths are close to zero, France 24 reported.
While the end of masking outdoors is a positive step to return to normal, the country still requires everyone entering the country, including civilians, to isolate themselves.
The country’s Ministry of Health noted that there are seven cases of a new Indian variant and they are still assessing its potential impact on the transmission.
“We are currently leading the world in overcoming the coronavirus,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters.
[But] we are still not done with the coronavirus. It can return. “