The mandatory hotel quarantine order for returning Israelis expires

The Knesset panel refused on Tuesday to renew the order for Israelis returning from aboard to go into mandatory quarantine in state-run hotels, calling for a better system. The coronavirus cabinet has responded by reducing from 2,000 per day to 200 the number of Israelis allowed to fly home in exceptional cases during the closure of the international Ben Gurion airport. This decision leaves thousands of Israelis stranded overseas.  The cabinet decided to retain the airport’s closure until after Passover i. e. April 3.

The cabinet also confirmed a three-day night curfew from Thursday night to Sunday morning to prevent the traditional Purim parties. The number of serious cases continued to drop, but the R factor has increased from 7.2 to 0.86 raising the concern of the health authorities that a renewed surge of the pandemic may be building up.

At the same time, 70pc of all Israelis over the age of 16 4,435 million have received their first vaccine shot and more than three million both doses.