Israel extends nationwide virus lockdown by five days
The cabinet also voted to keep the ban on international flights in place through at least Sunday.
Israel has extended its lockdown by an additional five days, with the cabinet voting Sunday to keep schools and most businesses closed through at least Friday morning.
The nationwide lockdown, now is in its fourth week, is Israel’s third since the start of the pandemic. A ban on international commercial air travel will also stay in place through Feb. 7 and the border crossings to Jordan and Egypt will remain shut, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Health Ministry.
Israel is the world leader in per capita vaccinations, having so far administered the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to roughly one-third of the population. But the vaccination drive and the lockdown haven’t managed to significantly slow the spread of the virus.
The country of nine million is still averaging over 6,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, the Associated Press reports. Since February 2020, Israel has logged over 640,000 confirmed cases and more than 4,800 deaths from the virus.
