Specter of third lockdown as coronavirus jumps again
Monday saw 1,227 new Israeli coronavirus cases, the biggest jump since mid-October. It found health officials and experts talking grimly about a third lockdown, while admitting that experimentally reopening 15 malls last Friday was a serious mistake. Of the 10,153 currently active cases, 264 are in serious condition and 89 on respirators. Deaths have risen to 2,865. Instead of shutting the malls against the rampaging shoppers, the ministers left them open for the fifth day, only ordering caps on the numbers admitted to the sites and the shops, a directive which is almost impossible to enforce.