Coronavirus Cabinet to Discuss Tourism Plan and Shortening of Isolation Period

In recent news, the Health Ministry registered around 730 new cases of the coronavirus. The coronavirus cabinet was scheduled to meet later on Tuesday to sit down and talk about the next moves that the State of Israel needs to take against the rising infections. These include coming up with a strategy to allow tourists into the country, as well as reducing the isolation period from a minimum of ten days to a week. 

The current number of cases has marked a record high since the month of March. However, serious morbidity in the country, which is the most crucial parameter according to the government, is still limited. 

As of now, around 45 patients are in serious condition, whereas on Monday, there were 47. In the month of April, the country reported a similar number of active cases in the country but, there were 270 serious patients at the time. 

The Director-General of the Health Ministry, Prof. Nachman Ash, said that the ministry updated the information collected with respect to the number of tests being performed every day in the previous month. However, it was later discovered that quite a few negative PCRs performed at the primary airport of the country, Ben-Gurion, had been counted two times. 

In the last couple of weekdays, the number of tests being carried out was around 70,000. After the numbers were correctly counted, the figure was found to be of 50,000. It was further concluded that the rate of tests coming out positive had increased from somewhere between 0.6% and 0.8% to 1%. 

The Prime Minister of the country, Naftali Bennett, as well as Nitzan Horowitz, the health minister, were supposed to meet with various health officials on Tuesday afternoon to prepare themselves for the cabinet meeting afterward. 

Among other things, the cabinet is set to discuss some possible measures to help curb the rise in the number of infections, which also includes an abridged version of the government-issued green pass. 

Up until a couple of weeks ago, the green pass was given to people who had been fully inoculated, individuals who had recovered, and children who were too young to get vaccinated and had gone through a PCR test in the last 72 hours. All green-card holders were allowed access to specific activities and venues. 

As per new proposals presented at the meeting of the coronavirus cabinet, events with more than 100 people will only be open to fully inoculated people, or those who have recovered from the virus. Individuals who present a negative test of the coronavirus will also be allowed in. 

Bennett has also requested the Health Ministry to take a look into the possibility of reducing the quarantine period. It currently lasts at least 10 days with two negative tests of the coronavirus and two weeks without them. Time and time again, health officials have been recommending a reduction in days of isolation to seven days.