The National Data Center for Coronavirus, under the auspices of the IDF intelligence branch, published a document on Wednesday morning showing a continual trend of overcoming the coronavirus epidemic in Israel.
The average weekly number of new diagnoses continues to drop, as does the average number of patients in serious condition. The number of fatalities from coronavirus-related complications is also declining on a week-to-week basis.
Nonetheless, experts stress that the overall number of virus carriers is still high. In addition, the number of confirmed virus cases around the world is still rising, especially in Europe, and several countries have declared a situation of emergency and have enforced more stringent social distancing regulations. Ireland has officially entered a second lockdown period.
The experts from the National Data Center also reminded the public of health guidelines and stressed that proper wearing of a face mask (covering both the nose and the mouth) contributes to a substantial lowering of the chances of infection. “This is a simple means, which is also cheap and readily available, that will enable us to return to daily life,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, the government’s coronavirus cabinet is scheduled to convene later on Wednesday in order to discuss the reopening of elementary classes. The Ministers of Education and Health are currently engaged in a battle over the issue, with the Health Minister, Yuli Edelstein, and the Education Minister, Yoav Galant, trying to reach a compromise in advance of the cabinet meeting.
On Tuesday, the ministerial committee in charge of designating coronavirus zones authorized the proposal of the government’s coronavirus project manager to remove virtually all towns and cities from the “red” category. Bnei Brak, Elad, Beitar Illit, and Modi’in Illit, as well as the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Mattersdorf, Maalot Dafna, and Ramat Eshkol, were all affected by this decision and are no longer restricted zones, now that their rates of contagion have dropped significantly. As such, only the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo remains a restricted zone.
According to updated figures from the Health Ministry, 1,165 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed in the past 24 hours, with a positivity rate of three percent among the tests conducted.