A special ministerial committee confirmed overnight Sunday that starting Sunday at noon, a full closure will be enforced in four Jerusalem sections with increased coronavirus infections. The closure will remain in place until Wednesday, April 15.
Area 1 includes the Neve Ya’akov neighborhood, but does not include the Jerusalem envelope community of Kfar Aqab, the Atarot industrial zone, Beit Hanina, Pisgat Ze’ev, and Hashalom neighborhood.
Area 2 includes Ramot, Ramat Shlomo and Romema, but does not include the Har Hozvim industrial zone, the Cedar Valley metropolitan park and the Motza valley metropolitan park.
Area 3 includes the Har Nof neighborhood, but does not include the Givat Shaul industrial area, Beit Hakerem, Mount Herzl institutional administration, Yuvalim, Ganim, Ramat Denia and Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.
Area 4 includes Mea Shearim, the Bukharim neighborhood and Mekor Baruch, but does not include the Kiryat Le’om and Beit David institutional administration.
As part of the closure, residents in these areas will be allowed to leave for work, essential medical treatment, funeral of a first-degree family member, transfer of a minor between divorced parents, legal processes, and any other essential needs with the prior approval of the National Emergency Authority.
Jerusalem has more than 10% of the entire population of Israel – about 930,000 residents. The ministerial committee concluded that a full closure of the entire city would be disproportionate and unnecessary, because most of the infection flare-ups are in the Haredi neighborhoods of the city, where 75% of the coronavirus patients live.
The Har Nof neighborhood has registered the highest rate of hospitalization: 8 patients per 1,000 residents. The northern Haredi neighborhoods, such as Sanhedria, Maalot Dafna, Givat Hamivtar and Ramat Eshkol, have registered about 5 patients per 1,000 residents, as is the case in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.
The Jerusalem municipality as a whole has only registered 1.8 infections per 1,000 residents, with 1,819 infections. 104 new cases were identified as of Sunday morning.
In Bnei Brak, the overall rate of infections is 8.1 per 1,000 residents, with 1,719 cases so far out of a population of 200,000. 38 new cases were discovered in Bnei Brak as of Sunday morning.