The government’s coronavirus cabinet is expected to convene today in order to discuss the next stage of easing the lockdown. Stages have been planned to progress two weeks apart, in order to give experts time to assess their impact prior to moving forward, and despite a continuing decrease in the rate of contagion across all sectors, the government has currently no plans to speed up the emergence from lockdown, keeping in mind the results of an overly hasty removal of restrictions in the spring.
One of the items on the cabinet’s agenda today is likely to be the resumption of studies in haredi yeshivas according to the formerly used capsule system. There have also been suggestions that Health Minister Yuli Edelstein will propose significantly raising the fines imposed on educational institutions that open in breach of the guidelines.
One of the options under consideration is swapping the second and third stages of the government’s tentative outline – that is to say, prioritizing the reopening of malls and other businesses and leaving the resumption of studies in elementary school (only grades 1-4 inclusive) for the third stage.
According to a government official who spoke with Yisrael Hayom, this proposal is based on estimations provided by the Education Ministry for the amount of time needed for schools to prepare to reopen based on the guidelines.
Meanwhile, Prof. Ronni Gamzu, the government’s coronavirus project manager, has asked the ministerial committee to remove several towns and cities from the “red” list, after they registered a significant decline in the number of new cases detected. Rechasim turned “orange” last night and today, ministers will be discussing the haredi-majority communities of Beitar Illit, Modi’in Illit, and Mattersdorf in Jerusalem. Gamzu has made the request despite admitting that there may be a significant number of undetected cases in these areas that could fuel a new resurgence of the virus.