Israel’s Health Ministry urged the Coronavirus Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday evening to mandate parents enter quarantine with their infected children, regardless of vaccination status.
The cabinet was to review new measures to counter the upswing in COVID-19 morbidity in the Jewish State.
Health officials said there were 501 new cases of the virus diagnosed on Monday – the highest number of new infections reported since this past March – out of some 72,000 tests that were conducted, resulting in a 0.7 percent positivity rate.
By 6 pm Tuesday, another 367 new cases of the virus were reported around the country. Some 1,300 school children are currently infected with the virus, out of 3,100 current active cases.
There were 38 patients listed in serious / critical condition, as opposed to 21, the number of such cases reported just three weeks ago. Other than one patient, there have been no other deaths from the virus reported.
More disturbing is the fact that more than 40 percent of those newly infected in the past few weeks were fully vaccinated.
Among the proposals being considered by the cabinet:
- Requiring parents to enter quarantine with their infected children, regardless of vaccination status.
- Requiring an addition coronavirus test by carried out for all travelers four days of entering Israel from abroad.
- Expanding the list of countries from which arrivals to Israel are required to enter quarantine, even if they have recovered from the virus, or have been fully vaccinated. The current list of countries includes Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa.
- Bringing back rapid testing to facilitate entry at events of 100 children or more, and at nursing homes.
- Improve enforcement on wearing masks in closed public places.
More than 20,000 Israelis were inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, including more than 2,800 who got their second dose, thus completing the series.
Israel’s population of some 9.3 million now includes 5,663,255 people who have gotten at least one shot and 5,180,662 who got both doses and are now fully vaccinated.