By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, JPost—
The country is heading back into a complete lockdown, which is to begin Friday and is likely to last until at least the end of the holidays.
After eight hours of deliberations, the coronavirus cabinet made its recommendations, which were brought to the full cabinet for a late-night vote. By 6:30 a.m. the government had approved the lockdown, too.
The government’s recommendations will be presented to the Knesset on Thursday for a vote.
The lockdown is expected to be more stringent than the one in March, and should include shuttering synagogues, reducing the number of people who can protest, closing all nonessential businesses and markets, reducing public transportation routes and allowing citizens to gather only within their nuclear families.
Protesters are expected to be allowed to demonstrate and worshipers to pray outside in groups of up to 20 people within one kilometer of their homes. Synagogues are expected to open only on Yom Kippur for small groups of worshipers, according to the outline originally designed and implemented on Rosh Hashanah.
A decision on halting flights departing Ben-Gurion Airport as early as Friday was not finalized by press time.
The decision comes on the day that almost 7,000 people were diagnosed with coronavirus in a 24-hour period – unprecedented numbers. Continue Reading….
