Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz decided upon a general lockdown of Israel that will begin on Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m. The lockdown will last for two weeks and will be extended for an additional two weeks if the goals are not met. The goals for the lockdown are to lower the infection rate to below 1,000 new cases per day.

The upcoming lockdown will be similar to the previous lockdown that took place over the Yomim Tovim. People will be limited to going 1 kilometer from their homes, being in other people’s homes will be prohibited, businesses, stores, cultural centers, and sports facilities will be closed with the exception of deliveries. Only essential stores will continue to operate and will do so with a limit of only 50% of the current permits issued. Public transportation will be diminished by 50 percent. Gatherings of no more than 20 people will be permitted outdoors and 10 people indoors. The “green” tourist islands will be abolished.

Individuals undertaking sports initiatives by themselves will be allowed to go an unlimited distance but will need to leave and return without using a car.

Unlike earlier lockdowns, the education system will remain open on a partial scale. Daycares as well as grades 1-4 and 11 and 12 will remain open between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Parents will be allowed to transport their kids as early as 7:00 a.m. and until 2:00 p.m. Special Education programs will remain fully open regardless of age or class level of the children. Parents who are share custody of children will be allowed to transport children back and forth between them.

Israel’s Health Ministry says it has detected the country’s first known cases of the new variant of the coronavirus.

The ministry announced Wednesday that it found the variant in four people who are in government-run quarantine hotels after returning from the U.K. The source of a fourth case is still under investigation.

Israel this week tightened its restrictions on entering the country, barring nearly all foreigners and requiring all returning Israelis to isolate in state-run hotels for 10 to 14 days. Flights from the U.K., Denmark and South Africa have been banned altogether.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the country is pressing ahead with a vaccination campaign it kicked off this week, while also weighing further lockdown restrictions.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem / AP)