Azrieli Mall in Modi'in
Azrieli Mall in Modi'inHezki Baruch

The government on Wednesday night approved a pilot plan that would see the reopening of 15 malls across the country as of Friday.

Six of the malls that will be opened belong to the largest groups in the market – Azrieli and Melisron. The remaining nine will be determined via lottery that will be conducted among the malls that are not owned by those two groups.

As part of the pilot, each store in the mall will be able to accommodate one visitor per seven square meters, but no more than ten people in the store.

Channel 13 News reported earlier on Wednesday that coronavirus project manager Professor Nachman Ash strongly opposes the move and has even warned senior officials against implementing it.

In closed conversations with senior officials in the Ministry of Health, Prof. Ash reportedly said that "it is clear to everyone that the opening of the malls and markets will cause an increase in cases."

The Ministry of Health announced earlier that 835 new verified cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in Israel in the past 24 hours, and the results of 59,664 tests had been obtained.

The rate of positive tests stands at 1.6%.

The number of active patients stands at 9,010, of which 498 are hospitalized and another 163 are recovering in coronavirus hotels. 285 patients are hospitalized in serious condition and 110 of them are on ventilators.

2,826 Israelis have died since the start of the pandemic.