Covid stats get better but still no clear path
After another lengthy and stormy meeting on Wednesday, Israel’s “Coronavirus cabinet” failed to reach an agreement on when and how to continue relaxing the second nationwide lockdown. The main area of disagreement remains reopening primary schools.
On Sunday, after over four weeks of lockdown, the 1000-meter movement restriction was removed and kindergartens were allowed to reopen. Meanwhile the numbers of new Covid-19 infections and serious cases have gone down drastically. But in the cabinet meeting, both prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and health minister Yuli Edelstein argued that the government needs to stick by its original plan to wait at least two weeks before moving ahead with the next steps.
Mr Edelstein implored his colleagues that “despite the decrease in all parameters, we have to pay attention that it’s not dropping as fast as it did earlier. Out there some schools are operating without permission, weddings, gatherings, businesses. So I’m very worried about the data that we’ll see in a week from now. We have reason to be very clear.”
After hours of debate, ministers decidednottodecideandtoreconvene next week. A majority were in favour of bringing forward the next round of relaxations and no vote was held. One main disagreement was between the senior civil servants of the health and education ministries on the requirements for reopening primary schools. The health officials came to cabinet armed with a new serological study that showed higher infection rates among school children than previously known. According to the study, while few children show symptoms, their infection rate is twice as high as grown-ups.
The health ministry is demanding that all schools be reopened in bub
Study shows childrens’ infection rate twice as high as adults’
bles of no more than eighteen children each, however the education ministry insists that there are not enough teachers and class-rooms to enable this.
A second argument in cabinet was over the demand of finance minister Yisrael Katz to change the original plan to reopen primary schools first and focus instead on reopening businesses and shops. Public health experts are warning that the lack of a coherent exit strategy, five weeks after the lockdown began and with multiple signs that the Israeli public is less prepared to abide by it, will lead inevitably to yet another wave of infections within weeks and force a third lockdown.
One major part of the Israeli public, the ultra-Orthodox community, has already started to openly flout the rules and many of its boys’ schools reopened this week. On Saturday night, Mr Netanyahu admitted that his government was powerless to prevent this. “We have a limited number of police officers,” he said. “You can’t send a police offer to every street-corner and alleyway.”