With the Delta variant of the Coronavirus continuing to claim more lives across the country, there are growing concerns of a delay in the opening of the school year or changes to school studies in Israel's education system.
"It is already quite clear we will not see a full opening of the school system on September 1. That is no longer in question, but what we are still waiting to see is what happens once the High Holidays are over and whether there is some sort of lockdown by then," a source in the Ministry of Education said in an interview to Ma'ariv. "This is clearly far from being an ideal situation since the more possible outcomes there are, the more difficult it is to get prepared for every one of them," they continued.
Prof. Nachman Ash, Director General of the Ministry of Health, discussed the possibility of another general lockdown in lieu of the recent spike in the COVID morbidity rate during an interview with Radio 103FM.
"We definitely would like to avoid quarantine. We are taking all measures not to have to do it - especially when it comes to vaccinating the adult population, offering booster doses, and enforcing the the green pass," he said.
"But if the burden on the health system gets out of hand, we will be left with no choice." concluded the former Coronavirus Czar.
On Friday, Israel saw a total of 3,846 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of active cases to 31,206.
As of Saturday, there were 545 hospitalized coronavirus patients, with 324 in serious condition, 71 in critical condition, and 49 on ventilators.
On Friday, 3.76% of individuals tested for the virus returned positive results.