Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told reporters at a briefing Tuesday night that they are hoping to extend the current national coronavirus lockdown by at least three more days, past Friday and into next week.
If the lockdown is extended by three days, Netanyahu said, 200,000 more people – mostly those over age 50 – will be protected by being vaccinated.
Officials are aiming to complete the inoculation of at least 90 percent of those in the 50+ age group in the next two weeks, Netanyahu said.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein added that if the country reopens on Friday, that day will be called “Black Friday” because millions will go shopping, and families and friends will gather together as they usually would, thereby exposing each other to possible infection, many without the protection of having yet been vaccinated against the virus.
Edelstein also said that in the coming days, when the country reopens, cities are to receive designations under the ministry’s traffic light plan not only according to the rate of infection, but now also in accordance with the number of residents in the city who have been vaccinated as well.
The Health Ministry reported 5,395 new cases of the coronavirus confirmed Tuesday out of 56,000 tests conducted in the country, resulting in a contagion rate of 9.6 percent.
Of those, 1,113 patients were listed in serious condition Tuesday night, including 324 being kept alive on ventilators. The COVID-19 death toll rose to 4,886.
According to the prime minister, around 70 percent of those who have contracted COVID-19 in Israel are currently infected with the UK mutation of the virus; Netanyahu added that the figure, however, is moving up towards 80 percent.
The good news, however, is that 3.1 million Israelis have already received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with 117,000 more residents inoculated on Monday. Nearly 1.8 million Israelis have now received the two-shot series of injections required to complete the COVID-19 vaccine.