Cabinet to continue schools debate today
Infection rising in several Arab towns • Netanyahu proposes increasing fines on rule breakers
The coronavirus cabinet is expected to reconvene today to make a final decision about whether schools can open in a week and, if so, with or without capsules for grades 1 and 2.
The Education, Health and Finance ministries met throughout the weekend, but the meetings ended with no agreement. Some officials said they even took steps backwards. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he expected a compromise to be made and that the ministries would continue meeting until late into the night.
“We are interested in opening schools, but there are challenges, problems and questions that we have to discuss,” he said.
Last week, a battle over when and how schools will open for children in grades 1- 4 started after the Health Ministry said that if classes resume, children will be required to learn in capsules beginning in first grade, all teachers and students will need to wear masks and there can be no mixing of students – even on buses or in after- school programming.
At a visit to Umm el- Fahm on Saturday, coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu reiterated his opposition to opening first and second grades without capsules.
Originally, capsules only started beginning with grade 3.
Education Minister Yoav Gallant, however, said that it would take as long as five weeks to roll out such a program, and therefore classrooms could not open on November 1, as hoped. He also said it would require around NIS 6 billion, which the Finance Ministry said it will not pay.
Over the weekend, Haim Bibas, chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel, asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to turn the education system over to the local authorities. He said that they could open schools on time – five days per week and maybe not with the exact programs that existed before coronavirus – but within the safety outline that the Health Ministry is requesting.
A final decision is supposed to be made Sunday at the coronavirus cabinet meeting.
At the same time, the government is expected to approve a decision by the Health and Education ministries on Friday that schools could start hosting outdoor educational activities for up to nine students at a time, so long as schools follow a safe protocol.
Activities will need to take place in consistent groups with permanent staff members and children. A teacher could float between up to three groups.
Participants will be asked to wear masks at all times – unless eating, drinking or playing sports. Meals will be eaten separately. Social distancing will also be required.
A release by the Education Ministry said that the regulations will be submitted to the government and, if approved, they will be formally distributed to schools, which could immediately start offering such programs.
The country continues to see a decline in coronavirus cases: 692 people were diagnosed with the virus on Friday, the Health Ministry said Saturday evening. Out of the 27,481 people tested, some 2.5% tested positive.
There were 552 patients in serious condition, including 218 who were intubated. So far, the coronavirus has claimed 2,366 lives – including nine between midnight and press time on Saturday.
“The difficult restrictions helped us to decrease the rate of infection,” the prime minister
said. But he warned that if the rate goes up, the restrictions will once again go up, as well. “We have no choice but to ensure life.”
He added that, “I am not prepared to accept that some of the public will follow the guidelines and some will not. I will propose tomorrow to increase fines [ for breaking regulations] dramatically.”
He said, “We cannot become complacent.”
There are some communities,
however, that are starting to see a spike again and they are mostly Arab towns and cities.
On Gazmu’s visit to the Arab city of Umm el- Fahm, he was joined by head of Public Health Services, Sharon Alroy- Preis, to discuss the challenge. The city has seen an increase in morbidity – about 12% of people being screened for the virus have tested positive for the virus in recent days – and is on the cusp of becoming a red zone and facing closure.
“Go and get tested,” Gamzu said during the visit, “only then can we control the situation. Otherwise, you cannot eliminate the virus – you don’t find [ the sick] and they circulate among you.”
The number of people in the Arab sector being screened had gone up during the lockdown but has since declined.
He and Ayam Saif, coronavirus project coordinator for Israel’s Arab sector, both condemned the community for allowing weddings and said that illegal gatherings would only lead to lockdown.
“You want commerce, you want a small wedding in an open space, he wants school – you cannot open a school with 12% testing positive. Why? Because the children will come to school infected and there are 30 children in the class,” Gamzu said.
The mayor of the town corrected Gamzu that there are 40 children in a class.
Gamzu added that it is not only in the Arab sector where there are violations, but also in the Jewish sectors, where young adults hold raves and infect each other. “The police tell me, ‘ Look, so and so weddings were here or there,’ and I say to them, ‘ wait 10 days, two weeks – the sick people will surface.’
“If the residents do not keep the rules, then in Umm el- Fahm and in other cities there will be a lockdown in two weeks.”
There are at least two Arab cities that are already considered red, including Majdal Shams, which Gamzu said he is planning to request the ministerial committee vote to lockdown on Sunday.
There are also another 11 Arab cities that are already orange, on the verge of turning red.