The Israeli government Tuesday evening approved a decision to impose a two-week nationwide lockdown starting from Thursday evening.
Cabinet ministers approved the Health Ministry’s proposal amid a dramatic spike in daily coronavirus infections, with the country seeing more than 8,300 cases over the last 24 hours alone.
Israel officially underwent its third national lockdown following an announcement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
But health experts have largely panned the latest containment strategy as largely ineffective due to weak law enforcement and lack of public compliance.
Heeding warnings emerging from the Health Ministry, Netanyahu called Tuesday’s cabinet meeting to get final government approval for the measure in what he described as Israel’s “last effort” in containing the virus before reopening the economy.
Netanyahu appeared to blame the uptick in new cases on a fast-spreading COVID-19 variant first discovered in the UK several weeks ago, which is said to be 50% to 70% more contagious than the original coronavirus strain.
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{Matzav.com}
