Health Ministry Cancels the Few Remaining COVID Restrictions

On Tuesday, the Health Ministry in Israel announced that some of the few COVID-19 restrictions that were still in place have now been cancelled.

These include the mandatory home isolation quarantine for those who test positive and the cancellation will come into effect on May 15^th.

Cancellation

Another rule that was cancelled by the authorities included the use of masks in retirement homes and medical facilities.

Likewise, retirement home visitors would no longer be required to show a negative COVID test. These orders will be put into effect between Wednesday and Thursday at midnight.

However, the recommendations of the Health Ministry dictate that the at-risk populations, including the elderly, should wear masks for their own safety indoors.

On Tuesday, the statistics from the Health Ministry showed that even though the virus was still circulating in society, the number of severe infections was considerably low.

The last week saw 15 people lose their lives to COVID-19, which saw the total death toll since the beginning of the pandemic reach 12,242.

On Tuesday, the total number of serious COVID cases stood at 91, while the total number of infected people in hospitals was 323.

The stats

It should be noted that the number of hospitalized cases and new infections have remained quite low since they had increased in the summer of 2022. Infections had reached their peak in January of 2022.

On Tuesday, the total number of active COVID-19 cases in Israel stood at 4,510 and the total number of cases that have been diagnosed since the beginning of the pandemic were 4.7 million.

When the pandemic had reached its peak, severe restrictions had been implemented in Israel for halting infections, which included closing schools and non-essential businesses, requiring masks in public spaces, putting a limit on indoor gatherings as well as international travel.

The easing

In April 2022, the country officially lifted the mandatory mask requirements indoors, which saw it eliminate one of the handful of restrictions that had been still in effect more than two years since the pandemic began.

Israelis had been required to wear masks indoors between April 2020 and April 2022. Only 10 days in June had been the exception in 2021.

The government had lifted the mandate briefly in light of a decline in the number of cases, but it had implemented it once more when cases burgeoned.

The vaccine committee of the Health Ministry said in the previous month that they should make annual COVID-19 vaccine shots the norm if there is no rise in the number of infection rates.

It should be noted that this has not become policy as yet, but most of the committee’s recommendations eventually do become policy later.

Israel has been quite proactive when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine, as it was the first one to implement the third and fourth booster shots.

Likewise, it was also quick to introduce the COVID-19 vaccine for kids and its quick action has worked wonders in keeping infection rates low.