
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and the Cabinet ministers decided on Friday that what was described as a "tightened" purple pass will be applied in malls and closed commercial areas, based on an occupancy ratio of 1:15 - meaning one person will be allowed to enter the premises for every 15 square meters, instead of an occupancy ratio of 1:7 today.
The purple pass in the shopping centers will replace the green pass requirement, on which Bennett had insisted up until this point. At the same, it was decided that in accordance with the morbidity rates, the possibility of applying the green pass requirement to any commercial building larger than 100 square meters will be examined in the coming days.
It was also decided that the hours of operation in the shopping malls would be extended in order to accommodate overcrowding, and that vaccination stations would be established in about 50 central points in the malls. It was agreed that special benefits would be given to people who get their COVID-19 vaccine in the shopping centers, "while creating an atmosphere that encourages immunization."
The decision will be discussed by the Cabinet on Sunday, after which the new regulations will be drafted and will be submitted to a telephone vote among the ministers in the Coronavirus Cabinet. The new directives will go into effect immediately upon approval.
The purple pass limits the number of people in any compound according to its size, meaning that a "tightened" purple pass would likely require a count of the number of people inside the mall at any given moment.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)