Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's on Tuesday evening spoke at the start of the meeting of the ministerial committee on fighting COVID-19 (the Coronavirus Cabinet), admitting that Israel will not be able to prevent a wave of infections, but will try to manage it instead.
"Today we are submitting to the Cabinet a series of decisions that will be presented immediately," Bennett said. "Our goal is enable the State of Israel to get through the Omicron wave while maintaining the functioning of the economy as much as possible."
"The Omicron in Israel is advancing exactly according to our expectations and assessments. Around three-and-a-half weeks ago, we made here, in this forum, the brave and farsighted decision to close Israel to the entry of foreign nationals from the entire world. This bought us an advantage of almost a month as compared to our friends in Europe and the US. But now, we are witnessing the doubling of the number of verified cases and we are entering an exponential pace.
"We expect to see a similar trend of doubling every two or three days in the near future, perhaps less. The public needs to be aware that a dramatic increase in morbidity is expected. This is not an exaggeration. It is expected and I estimate that it will arrive very quickly.
"We cannot prevent this wave; there is no such possibility. However, we can certainly give the citizens of Israel the tools with which they may protect themselves against severe morbidity, given that some of them will be infected.
"It must be said that whoever is vaccinated, wears a mask and behaves in an optimal manner are less susceptible. We still do not know, even at this moment, the level of severity of the virus. It has been less than a month since this strain was given a provisional name. I assess that we will know this within a week-and-a-half when the data from England and Denmark arrive, the countries where they are doing serious documentation work. We do know that whoever is fully vaccinated is incomparably protected against severe morbidity as opposed to those who are not vaccinated or who are not vaccinated fully.
"Therefore, vaccines, masks and social distancing."
Bennett added, "As of now, there is a large number of Israelis who have received two immunizations but not the third dose. There are also one million children who have not even received the first immunization. They are currently exposed and our goal is to motivate them on a large scale in the coming days to get vaccinated. There are also adults, about whom I am waiting anxiously for the Health Ministry to approve giving them a fourth dose, the elderly and the immune-compromised, so that we can protect them."
"We are here discussing the core of the policy. As those who bear the responsibility, we have no good alternatives. The alternative is between restrictions and preventive measures now, and much harsher measures later. One need not be a prophet here. Our core strategy is to delay by as much as possible, by another day and another day, to vaccinate and to prepare as much as possible, and to lower the pace of infection a bit.
"The plan that we are submitting this evening has been worked on intensively in the past 24 hours by the relevant ministries. It is not falling on the ministries out of the blue; as I understand it, it is by agreement. I ask that we all communicate seriousness and determination to the public so that the public will show responsibility and join in."