Masks to return indoors next week as infections climb
100 cases found 4th day in a row • Ashkelon residents to test after virus detected in sewage
The requirement to wear a mask indoors will be restored next week, as Thursday marked the fourth day in a row that the country registered over 100 new daily cases and the new outbreaks spread to several more municipalities, including Kfar Saba, Ramle and Herzliya.
In addition, the Health Ministry invited Ashkelon residents to get tested after traces of the Delta variant were found in the city’s wastewater.
“Our recommendation is to start wearing masks indoors already now,” Coronavirus Commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash said. “Next week, it will be mandatory.”
Earlier in the week, the government announced that if the weekly average of daily cases was to exceed 100, they would restore the obligation to wear masks in closed spaces. As of Thursday morning, the figure stood at 75, up from 58 on the previous day and 45 on Tuesday.
Some 138 new cases were identified on Wednesday, and as of 5 p.m. the new virus carriers registered on Thursday were already 169, the highest since April. Last week, new daily cases varied between three and 46.
While Israel has registered over 100 cases for several days in a row, the figures remain just a fraction of the new patients
identified every day during the darkest months of the pandemic in the winter, which numbered in the thousands.
The centers of the new outbreak have been several schools, including in Binyamina and Modi’in. In light of the number of infected people, Binyamina
pronounced dead. Bakri said the officers arrived at Banat’s home to arrest him in accordance with a warrant issued by the PA prosecutor-general.
The governor did not give any reason for the arrest.
“The Palestinian security forces did not come to arrest him,” said Hussein Banat, a cousin of the deceased activist. “They came to assassinate him.” He added that the raid took place around 3:30 a.m.
Another relative, Majdi Banat, said the beating lasted for eight minutes. “They blew up the door of the house with explosives,” he said. “It was a very brutal and violent raid.”
He added that Banat had