Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin (Bibi) NetanyahuMOREThe cabinet voted Sunday to extend the country’s national coronavirus blockade until at least Friday morning as Israel continues to face high infection rates.
The Netanyahu office announced the extension of the blockade that closed most schools and non-essential businesses as it entered its fourth week on Monday, local time. The Times of Israel reported.
Officials also decided to keep the nation’s only major airport closed until Sunday and re-establish a mandatory quarantine for those authorized in government quarantine hotels starting Tuesday.
The extension comes after Israel predicted that coronavirus cases and deaths would drop by mid-January, a prediction that failed to materialize, according to Reuters. Israeli officials point to more contagious foreign strains and non-compliance in the country for high COVID-19 statistics.
Cabinet officials reportedly faced a length of time to block the blockade, with Netanyahu and Health Ministry officials arguing for at least another week, while Defense Minister Benny Gantz called for it to end by Thursday, according to The Times Israel.
Israel has maintained about 6,000 new cases of coronavirus per day, reaching one of the highest infection rates in developing countries, The Associated Press reported. Forty percent of current cases are among children and adolescents, a Health Ministry official told cabinet members, according to The Times of Israel.
Overall, the country has counted more than 643,000 COVID-19 cases, leading to nearly 4,800 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 3 million people in Israel received the first dose of vaccine, and more than 1.7 million received both doses.
Cabinet officials announced the decision following crowded funerals for two prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Jerusalem, who defied restrictions on up to 10 people for outdoor gatherings. Both rabbis died of COVID-19, according to reports cited by the AP.
Netanyahu, who faces elections in March, has been criticized by opponents for not responding strictly enough to large gatherings of ultra-Orthodox Jews, who as a community make up 40 percent of new cases but 11 percent of the population.