Israel starts to reopen skies
3,000 to be allowed entry daily • Flights allowed from NY, Paris, Frankfurt, Kiev
A-G institutes lengthy approval process for foreign vaccine aid,
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the coronavirus cabinet on tuesday approved an outline to partially reopen the skies, allowing israelis to enter and leave the country on authorized flights from sunday.
returnees may choose to quarantine at home instead of in a hotel.
under the plan, up to 3,000 citizens a day will be able to enter the country without special permission from the governmental exemptions committee. the number and destinations of flights allowed to operate from Ben-Gurion airport will be determined by the transportation ministry in cooperation with the health ministry.
those who return will need to undergo two coronavirus tests: one before boarding the flight and one upon arrival. these will include travelers who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from the virus.
such vaccinated or recovered israeli travelers will be able to travel abroad on authorized flights, while those who are not fully vaccinated will be required to apply for permission.
in the initial phase, the only destinations will be new york, paris, Frankfurt and Kiev, israeli media reported. the reason for selecting these destinations was not given.
an extra 660 police officers will be assigned to enforce mandatory quarantine. the government will also offer technological means, such as electronic bracelets, to ensure that people isolate at home. hotels will remain available for those who cannot quarantine at home.
the health, transportation and tourism ministries are working on a framework within which to welcome vaccinated tourists to israel. meanwhile, foreigners will still have to apply for a special permit.
the plan to reopen the skies was reportedly approved in spite of opposition from health ministry officials.
“we see many mutations out there, not just from new york,” one of the approved destinations, the ministry’s chief of public health dr. sharon alroypreis said during the meeting.
“we must make sure that [the quarantine of] people who enter will not be just under
police enforcement, otherwise we will find ourselves in a catastrophic situation in a month and we will ask ourselves how we allowed people in carrying mutations,” she said. “In such a situation, the vaccination campaign may be proven useless. We must be careful.”
Earlier in the day, Health Ministry Director-General Chezy Levy said that the cabinet discussions were plagued with “election fever.”
“Everyone feels that these discussions are affected by election fever and impacted by it,” Levy said in an interview with Radio 103FM on Tuesday morning. “There is no question that the ministers come to advance their own interests and the interests of their ministries, and that politics also play a role.”
The decision to reopen the skies came a day after the government decided that the third phase of the exit strategy from the lockdown – the opening of restaurants and event halls – will begin on Sunday as planned.
The R reproduction rate stood at 0.97 on Tuesday, marking a decrease after several days on the rise.
Maintaining the R rate at 1 or below is one of the criteria that the Health Ministry has set as a condition for relaxing restrictions, together with the number of people fully vaccinated and the number of patients in serious conditions.
During the cabinet meeting on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized
that the latter criteria are becoming more central than the first one, in light of the success of the vaccination campaign in the country.
However, health ministry officials, including coronavirus commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash, expressed concern over the cabinet’s decision to move forward with the plan to lift restrictions without firm evidence of a decreasing R rate.
Some 4,802 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday, with 5.4% of about 90,000 tests returning positive results, according to the Health Ministry.
Of all those infected, 705 were in serious condition on Tuesday night and 213 were on ventilators. The death toll rose overnight to 5,786.
At the same time, over 4.8 million Israelis have received at least the first dose of the vaccine, including 3.5 million who have received both shots. •
CHANGE
ready to welcome back customers, but it hasn’t started yet, Elter said.
“In the coming days, when we see that is really happening, we’ll start to organize the place for customers, set up all the equipment and table arrangements and prepare for taking orders,” she said. “At that time, we’ll do some promotion on our social-media pages for the reopening, but not a major campaign. And we’ll ask our customers to have patience as we figure things out.”
Ethan Padnos, the manager of Hatch, a popular meat restaurant in Mahaneh Yehuda, expressed excitement and a bit of anxiety at the prospect of reopening.
“I’m excited and looking forward to seeing people,” he said. “It’s been a long year without them. That’s why we’re here in the shuk [outdoor market], to see our customers.
“But at the same time, I’m pessimistic about how it’s going to work,” he added. “I read that the government might require us to set up a system requiring customers to make reservations, but nobody seems to know about that. We’ll have to make sure we can keep our customers and our workers safe in this small eating area.”
Meanwhile, reopening with such short notice presents major challenges, Padnos said.
“We have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do,” he said. “We have to move from being takeout-oriented to being a sitdown restaurant again, and that means moving from disposable cutlery and boxes and bags to bringing out the silverware and plates and tables.
“We also need to do some hiring. A lot of our staff was on halat [unpaid leave] or left Israel to go back to their families abroad. We have to hire new people and train them in a week to get ready for this. It is a little bit daunting.”
Other restaurants seem to be hiring as well, Padnos said.
“There are a lot of new restaurants in the shuk, and many are looking for workers, especially post-army,” he said. “I see that there is a lot of room for work at the shuk now.”
Ultimately, there seemed to be a sense of excitement in the market as Israel gears up to try to be the first country in the world to exit the pandemic.
“Everyone should get out,” Silverstein said. “It’s been a long time that people have been stuck at home. People need to get out onto the streets and enjoy themselves for their mental health and for themselves. We need to get out of the mindset of being stuck.” •