Restaurant (illustrative)
Restaurant (illustrative)iStock

The order banning eating in restaurants went into effect at 5:00a.m. on Tuesday, closing restaurants to all but deliveries and take-away.

However, at 9:45a.m. the Knesset's Coronavirus Committee is expected to meet again to decide how restaurants can continue operating.

MK Yifat Shasha-Biton (Likud), who chairs the committee, has stated her intention to retroactively cancel the ban, leaving restaurants fully open but with limits on the number of guests and on condition that the guests sit under the open sky.

On Monday night, Shasha-Biton promised, "If they issue an order, then with great pain we will cancel it, so that restaurants can open."

The promise was made after Shasha-Biton spoke with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud) in an unsuccessful attempt to change the order approved last week by the government.

Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus cases reached 1,183 on Monday, with 8.1% of tests coming back positive. Of the 264 patients in serious condition, 84 are on ventilators - a record high.