Millions of children await government decision on schools

The coronavirus cabinet meets later Sunday to decide whether to go forward to stage three of its exit strategy and reopen shopping centers and more schools (5-6 and 11-12 grades) after months of closure. They will also consider imposing a night curfew to balance the anticipated rise in infection. All three options are in dispute among the ministers. Education Minister Yoav Galant demands the reopening of all schools without delay, whereas the Health Minister Yuli Edelstein counter counters that the risk of another surge is too high so long as the level of new cases has not fallen below 500 a day and the R infection fact has not dropped to 0.8pc tops.

Hundreds of schoolchildren rallied on Saturday in protest against their shuttered classes.

A compromise deal for the curfew plan proposes increasing the hotbed regions under current closure from five to 15-20, instead of imposing a curfew nationwide.

On Saturday, 286 new covid cases were reported and 2.3pc tested positive out of a relatively low number of12,600 tests. Out of the 536 patients in hospital, 288 were in serious condition, 122 on ventilators. The number of dead in eight months since the onset of the pandemic reached 2,721.

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