Israel registers a new peak of infections two days after experiencing a third strict confinement

Israel will experience its third confinement from Sunday, at the height of the peak of coronavirus infections, with almost 4,000 cases detected in the last 24 hours, the maximum figure for almost three months, when the country was immersed in its previous confinement.

The effects of the vaccination campaign, which began last Sunday, will still take some time to give results, as recalled by the director general of the Ministry of Health, Hezi Levy, so that to lower the curve, citizens will not be able to move further one kilometer from their homes, and schools and most businesses will close for two weeks.

The Government of Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed this Friday 3,958 new positives (4.1% positivity) and 15 deaths, which puts the totals at 393,369 and 3,185, respectively, in a country with just over nine million inhabitants.

The number of infections exceeded 3,500 for the first time since October this Tuesday.

Levy warned that the closure, which will begin at 5:00 p.m. local time on Sunday (one hour less in mainland Spain), could be extended by two more weeks if infections do not drop to less than 1,000 cases a day.

There are almost a thousand covid-19 patients admitted, of which 527 are serious, 167 of them in critical condition, which represents "a daily increase of 70-90 seriously ill patients," said Levy, quoted by Efe.

"We know that it is hard to lock us up again, despite already having the vaccine, but there is no other remedy," Netanyahu declared when announcing the measure this Thursday.

The most affected communities are the Orthodox Jews and the Arab minority of the country, 12% of the general population and the poorest sectors of Israel, among other reasons, for continuing to hold mass gatherings at weddings, festivities and funerals, in which the Participants do not comply with health regulations and social distancing.

Confinement has very few exceptions, and, as on the two previous occasions, it causes confusion and annoyance among citizens due to their comings and goings.

Never have Israelis met so many professors in medicine, education and other experts as those swarming through the media and social networks.

The rupture of the coalition between the conservative Netanyahu and the centrist Benny Gantz in the midst of the pandemic will force Israel to hold legislative elections on March 23, the fourth in two years.

The level of positives among the general population is minimal, close to 2%, compared to the records from ultra-Orthodox cities and Arab towns that, precisely, had managed to reduce it a few weeks ago.

For this reason, the application of the harsh measures to everyone equally, with some exceptions, irritates a large part of the public.

"How logical is all this!" Israeli and Arab traders complain at the prospect of closure.

All Israelis who return from abroad are transported from the airport to the so-called “little hotels” for a quarantine of up to two weeks.

Last Wednesday the entry of foreigners was prohibited.

In mid-October, the country began a gradual de-escalation after a month of confinement, after cases soared to 9,000 a day.

But the entry into the third wave forced the Government to impose a night curfew on the 9th between 7:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., to try to stop the spread of infections during Hanukkah - a Jewish family holiday -, Christmas and New Years.

The schools, which had begun to recover their activity, although with preventive restrictions, are condemned to a partial closure.

They will not be able to open shops, already on the verge of bankruptcy, public transport is limited and citizens will only be able to go more than one kilometer from their homes to go to work or buy essential goods.

These measures cost about 3,000 million shekels (767 million euros) a week, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Some 210,000 people have been vaccinated with the Pfizer and BioNTech drug since the beginning of the campaign - 74,000 of them this Thursday - but Health warns that we still cannot lower our guard and that there are months to reach a certain level of herd immunity .

The first have been health personnel in contact with covid-19 patients, followed by those over 60, starting with those admitted to residences, and their caregivers.

The population likely to be vaccinated, subjected to a strong official campaign, numbers in the tens of thousands, and less than 30% are currently reluctant to do so.

The 71-year-old prime minister was the first Israeli to be vaccinated, last Saturday, "to set an example" to the citizens of his country and convince the undecided.

Netanyahu's injection was broadcast live from Sheba Hospital, near Tel Aviv, at nighttime primetime.

It is estimated that in April, 60% of the inhabitants, Jewish Israelis, Muslim and Christian Arabs and members of other minorities will have received the two doses of the drug.

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