Team News Riveting
Israel on Sunday evening entered its third national lockdown since the start of the pandemic to combat a resurgence of COVID-19.
The lockdown began at 5 p.m. Sunday evening. Officially, it had been declared for two weeks with an option to extend. The health officials have already warned it would likely go on for a month as daily virus cases in Israel have been surging upward in recent weeks, surpassing 3,000 on most days over the past week.
The lockdown rules bar Israelis from entering another person’s home; restrict movement to one kilometer (six-tenths of a mile) from home, with exceptions, such as for vaccinations; shut down commerce (except for essentials), leisure and entertainment; limit public transportation to 50 per cent capacity; and limit workplaces that do not deal with customers face-to-face to 50 per cent capacity.
Fines for violators stand at NIS 500 ($155).
Under the terms for the lockdown proposed by the government, preschools, grades 1-4 and grades 11-12 were to have a full day of classes as usual, but grades 5-10 were to stay at home and use distance learning instead. However, the Knesset Education Committee convened on Sunday and voted to overturn the regulations, thereby keeping all students in the classroom.
