The Israeli government announced in the last hours the closure of a hundred schools and kindergartens after confirming more than 300 new cases of coronavirus since the restart of classes three weeks ago so that some 16,000 children and teachers must return to quarantine.
The Israeli government ordered today, on the first working day of the week in the country, the closure of a school in the Guiló settlement in the occupied territory of East Jerusalem, and quarantined all primary school students and teachers, the EFE news agency reported.
Schools in Tel Aviv and Yafa, on the west coast, and in Safed, in the north of the country also closed this week.
Last night, the government decided to close the schools of the Regional Council of Sdot Negev, after a student who had been in contact with schoolchildren from other centers in the transport test positive.
In the case of Safed’s school, it was a driver who brought dozens of children to school who tested positive.
It is a total of 110 schools closed since the reopening was allowed on May 17.
Israel began its return to normality quickly, but from the beginning, there were concentrations of people and many people without masks.
On May 27, the hotels, pools, and restaurants were reopened and the beaches are also currently open, today full of people who are ignoring the mandatory use of the mask, the Europa Press news agency reported.
Educational authorities are looking for ways to examine the thousands of children and adults who are now in quarantine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently alerted the population to the difficulties of de-escalation, called for utmost caution, and recalled the key points: hand washing, wearing face masks, and physical distancing.
Netanyahu also warned that if the number of infections continues to increase, the country could back down on several of the measures, particularly in the opening of educational centers.
After new spikes in cases that forced authorities to consider warning about the second outbreak of infections, Israel records a total of 17,783 cases and 297 deaths from coronavirus, according to data from the American Johns Hopkins University.
The outgoing director-general of the Health Ministry, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, referred to the recent surge in infected people as a “second wave”, although he later denied making these comments.
Yoav Kisch, the new vice minister of Health, on the other hand, was more forceful in saying that “it is too early to say that the country is experiencing a new outbreak.”
