New Restricted Zones Declared as Coronavirus Surges

YERUSHALAYIM
israel coronavirus
A worker checks the temperature of a customer at the entrance to the Machane Yehuda Market in Yerushalayim, Tuesday. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

 

As coronavirus cases surged on Tuesday, the Israeli government declared a series of new “restricted zones” in the chareidi city of Elad and several neighborhoods in Tiverya.

The measure was set to go into effect as of 8 a.m. Wednesday and last for a week.

The specific areas affected by the decision are: the municipality district of Elad and in Tiverya: Ramat Tiverya Bet, Ramat Tiverya Gimmel, Neighborhood 200, Tiverya Illit and the Ben Gurion neighborhood.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu‏‏ said that similar closures would be applied to other areas, and would be decided upon Wednesday.

Coronavirus numbers have shot up, 459 new cases in the 24 hours since Monday evening, including over 200 since Tuesday morning.

Another fatality brought the death toll to 308. No details were immediately on the latest death.

Forty people are in serious condition, 27 of them on ventilators. There are 5,299 active COVID-19 cases in the country, the PMO said.

It said 13,451 tests have been conducted today.

Earlier in the day, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said during an inspection tour of virus facilities in central Israel that spot closures were on the agenda, not “total lockdown.”

“It may be that during the course of the day we will declare restricted zones to cut the infections and I call on residents to act with understanding. We won’t have a total lockdown but we need cooperation,” he said.

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