Israel’s Health Ministry announced on Motzei Shabbos that the number of people who have been confirmed carriers of Covid-19 Coronavirus in Israel has reached 10,743. Of those, 175 are listed as being in serious condition. Among them, 129 are on respirators. Over the course of Shabbos, two people died from the virus bringing the total number of deaths in Israel to 101. Some 1,341 people have made a complete recovery from the virus.

Beginning on Sunday, Israelis will need to wear facemasks whenever they leave their homes according to a command issued by the Health Ministry. The new edict does not apply to children under 6, anyone who suffers a disability that doesn’t allow them to wear a mask, is inside a car alone or with people whom they live with, is part of a live broadcast on a media channel, two workers who sit in the same room regularly and have a distance of more than two meters between them.

The government has also allowed public transportation to begin once again. The Transportation Ministry announced on Friday that public transportation will begin again as of 5:30 a.m. on Sunday.

The Transportation Ministry also announced that Ben Gurion airport will open again effective immediately to allow Israeli citizens to return home from abroad. Anyone who returns to Israel will now be forced to stay at one of the Corona hotels being run by the Defence Ministry in isolation at the expense of the government.

Medical supplies including face masks, protective suits, and sterile gloves, will be imported from Turkey, after Turkey finally gave the okay for the shipment for humanitarian purposes after initially nixing the transport. Permission came with the caveat that Israel has to supply some of the shipment to the Palestinian Authority.

Hosen L’Yisrael party leader Benny Gantz requested an extension of the mandate that he received from the President to form a government. Gantz said that the request came as a result of the political, medical, and social crises that Israel is facing and amid talks with the Likud party to form a  unity government. He said that the parties are close to forming a government and that they need additional time to hammer out the final details.

Following the decision to return special education students to schools after Pesach ends, the government is laying plans to return the rest of the student population to school. Amid suggestions on how to properly continue the school year arose the possibilities of canceling summer vacation partially or entirely, canceling recess, and holding smaller classes. According to the plan that is being formed, students in upper grades will return to classes either online or via telephone calls. Additional measures, such as in-person smaller classes, will be decided upon based on the rate of recovery of the general population.

Other parts of Israel’s exit plan for ending the Corona lockdown have come to light. With regards to the workforce, the Hi-tech, industry, and finance workers will be among the first to return to work, according to a draft of the lockdown exit plan presented by the Finance Ministry on Saturday night.

The draft, which will be presented to ministers, would have Israelis returning to work gradually, beginning immediately after the Passover holiday, in order to avoid a collapse of the economy.

According to the report’s estimates, over 400,000 of the more than one million Israelis currently unemployed will not return to work even after the lockdown ends. This estimate is double that of an earlier estimate by the Employment Services that 200,000 Israelis would not be able to return to work after the lockdown ended.

A 53-year-old Charedi woman from Beit Shemesh, who has been identified as Mazal Delal, passed away as a result of Corona in the hospital over Shabbos. She leaves behind her a husband and nine children. She is thus far, the youngest Charedi person to die of the disease in Israel.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)