The Israelis went almost naked on Sunday after the order to wear outdoor masks was canceled in another step towards relative normalcy due to the country’s mass vaccination against COVID-19.
With about 81% of citizens or residents over the age of 16 – the age group eligible for the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine (PFE.N), (22UAy.DE) in Israel – after receiving both doses, infections and hospitalizations have suddenly dropped.
But the entry of foreigners is still limited, and non-immune Israelis returning from abroad have to isolate themselves, due to concern that virus variants could cause the vaccine. read more The Ministry of Health said it had detected seven cases of a new Indian variant in Israel, the potency of which was being assessed.
“We are leading the world right now when it comes to getting out of the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters. “(But) we’re not done with the coronavirus yet. It may be back.”
Police wearing open-face masks, ordered a year ago for non-exercise activities, has been abandoned. But the Ministry of Health said the requirement still applies to indoor public spaces and urged citizens to keep masks on hand.
“Breathe freely,” read the headline of the mass daily Israel Hayom.
“Being without a mask for the first time in a long time feels weird. But it’s a really weird one,” said 19-year-old Amitai Hallgarten as she sunbathed in a park. “If I have to be masked inside to finish this – I’ll do my best.”
With Israeli kindergartens, middle and high school students who have already returned to class, high school students who were kept at home or participated in the course sporadically returned to pre-pandemic programs.
Teachers were instructed to continue ventilating classrooms and to maintain social distance in lessons and breaks. Extracurricular activities, such as children’s theaters, remain out of bounds.
“This is another unvaccinated population (children under the age of 16) that we want to protect,” Health Ministry official Sharon Alroy-Preis told Israeli Army Radio.
Israel counts the Palestinians in East Jerusalem among its population of 9.3 million and has administered the vaccines there.
The 5.2 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have received limited supplies of vaccines provided by Israel, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, the global COVAX and China vaccine sharing system.
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