Defense Minister Benny Gantz addressed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with a demand to convene the Coronavirus Cabinet in order to make decisions and provide certainty to the public regarding the next stage of exit from the quarantine.
Gantz, who has been leading the demand in recent days to expand the restrictions in red cities, wrote on his Facebook page: "Netanyahu, we must convene the Corona Cabinet this week and give clear instructions to the public. Last week we decided to speed up the closure of red cities."
"This is not happening at a satisfactory pace, even though we have lowered the criteria," the defense minister explained. "Unfortunately, if we do not speed up the treatment of the issue, we will not be able to reduce the rate of infection."
Gantz noted, "We also decided to raise the fines - and that has not happened yet - so we cannot improve enforcement and deterrence. Millions of students and business owners are waiting for our decisions in the Cabinet, so I demanded a debate this week to provide certainty where we can discuss our decisions to fight the disease, as well as the possibility of opening part of the economy in a partial outline in open areas as proposed by the heads of the local councils and the education system, according to the proposals on the matter."
The defense minister emphasized: "We must not wait until next week - simple, clear and responsible decisions must be made now."
Meanwhile, the Knesset’s Labor and Welfare Committee, headed by MK Haim Katz (Likud), approved an agreement that was recently signed between Social Security and the Treasury, providing a one-time grant of NIS 2,000 to anyone who has been unemployed for an extended period due to the coronavirus epidemic.
The grant will be paid out to anyone who has received unemployment benefit for at least 100 days between March 1 and October 17, 2020, regardless of whether the days of unemployment were consecutive or not, provided that the former employee’s salary was less than the average national wage.
The grant will also be paid out to those who are eligible for the government’s special “adjustment” grant to those aged 67 and above. In a household where both partners are entitled to the grant, they will receive an additional NIS 500 each, for a total of NIS 5,000.