Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday opened the Corona Cabinet meeting saying:
“As of now, the lockdown has been a major success. We are seeing a decline in all data, a clear and consistent decline. We want to converge on the indicators which the Health Ministry and the experts have suggested to us so that we can begin to gradually ease the current conditions of the lockdown. We need to do this so that we will not have an additional lockdown in two or three weeks. Therefore, the exit needs to be gradual, responsible, careful and controlled.
“However, there is no doubt that as of now there is a success here which they are already beginning to talk about and look at in many countries, mainly in Europe, where the morbidity in several countries has already passed us. They are now deliberating on a question that we deliberated on and already decided – yes to a lockdown, yes to lowering the numbers quickly. But now our great challenge is to continue the decline without bringing about a new outbreak and a new increase.
“In any case, I would also like to point out the dramatic decline over three weeks in morbidity related to wearing masks. This is also connected to the fact that larger sections of the public, according to all impressions and the data that has reached us, are wearing masks – and this changes everything. This must continue. Our responsibility as public leaders is also to continue to call on the public to follow the rules, especially wearing masks and keeping distance.”