Israel drops Covid restrictions after successful vaccine rollout
ISRAEL is to end all Covid restrictions following a successful vaccine rollout which appears to have stamped out new infections.
Dr Asher Salmon, Head of
International Relations at the Israeli Ministry of Health, said by midweek there will be no social distancing required, no enforcement of masks, and large-scale gatherings will be allowed without the need for any measures such as vaccine passports.
“The only place where we will still require face masks is in hospitals and care homes,” he said.
Dr Salmon added: “We are lifting the pandemic restrictions because we no longer have a substantial amount of cases across the country.”
With the majority of the population having received the Pfizer-biontech vaccine, and about 92 per cent of those 50 and older inoculated or recovered from Covid, Israel began gradually reopening its economy in February.
He said the threat of new variants was
being watched but would not stop the country from re-opening.
“Maybe we took the decision to do this too early and the threat of new variants is concerning, but we are not waiting to see what will happen with this theoretical threat, though we will monitor it.”
He added: “By the end of February we had 80 per cent of the elderly population vaccinated.this was a critical point – and at that point we started a green pass [to indicate immunity post-vaccination or Covid recovery] so elderly people who had been in lockdown for so long could start enjoying life again. Schools then reopened and the education system went back, though universities are still operating on a hybrid system.
“We have been looking closely at England and met Michael Gove and we keep in close contact.
“The decisions made by your government have to be their own.
“It cannot be judged.we will not know if we have taken the right approach but I hope we never see another lockdown, though the emergence of a new variant could create a different story.”
Israel dropped its green pass this month and has now opened its borders to vaccinated visitors and tourists.
Those who are not vaccinated or from countries deemed “high risk” will still have to quarantine on arrival.
And Dr Salmon said Israel would not pursue a zero-covid strategy.
“To do this you would have to fully close yourself off to the world which for us is totally unrealistic because a huge amount of our population have close relatives abroad – and we also have a lot of people who travel for economic, business and scientific reasons,” he said.