OUTDOOR MASK-WEARING NO LONGER REQUIRED IN ISRAEL AFTER DROP IN INFECTION RATE

Sun 18 April 2021:

The Ministry of Health of Israel has canceled the mandatory wearing of face masks in the open air amid a drop in coronavirus infection rates.

“In light of the morbidity figures that continue to be low throughout the country … Director General of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Hezi Levy, amended the Public Health Order, so that there is no obligation to wear a mask in an open area, starting tomorrow, April 18,” the ministry said on Saturday.

He credited Israel’s successful vaccination campaign but called for ongoing vigilance inside.

Health professionals had for weeks been saying the mask mandate outside would likely end soon, but actually reaching the milestone will doubtless be a moving moment for many Israelis, who over the past year have become accustomed to seeing little more than each others’ eyes while out on the streets.

The ministry advised to wear face coverings at large outdoor gatherings and stressed that mask wearing is still obligatory indoors.

In late March, Israeli Health Ministry spokesperson Anat Danieli said that Israel plans to start inoculating teenagers aged 12-16 as soon as all the necessary permissions are received.

A top expert on the pandemic said on Sunday that Israel may have reached “a sort of herd immunity” and could safely ease further restrictions. Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, told Channel 12 that with most Israelis immunized, even the reopening of swaths of the economy and gatherings over the Purim and Passover holidays had not contributed to a spike in cases.

According to the Russian news agency, Israel started vaccinating its population against the COVID-19 on December 20 last year and the country has seen one of the most rapid vaccine rollouts of anywhere in the world.