"In Umm al-Fahm, like in all of Arab society, Netanyahu is neither a guest nor welcomed," tweeted MK Sami Abou Shahadeh, who was in the city at the same time as the prime minister. "Netanyahu's coronavirus campaign in Arab society will fail."פעם הפחיד את הציבור שאנו ״נוהרים לקלפיות". עכשיו "נוהרים לחיסונים" זו תעמולת הבחירות החדשה של נתניהו.זה אותו נתניהו המסית שמבקש עכשיו גם לקושש קולות. טעית בכתובת!
— Yousef Jabareen (@DrJabareen) January 1, 2021
גם באום-אלפחם בדומה לכל החברה הערבית, נתניהו הוא לא אורח ולא רצויי, הצורך שלו להסתנן כמו גנב ולצאת באותה דרך מהעיר אומר הכל.קמפיין הקורונה של נתניהו בחברה הערבית יכשל. pic.twitter.com/j8kMMVlKLU
— Sami Abou Shahadeh (@ShahadehAbou) January 1, 2021
On Friday morning, the Health Ministry released that more than 150,000 people were vaccinated the day before. Israel is No. 1 per capita when it comes to vaccinations. Some 10% of the population has received the jab.
Nonetheless, the virus has not stopped spreading and health officials plan to appeal to the government to tighten restrictions next week, potentially closing up the way Israel did over Yom Kippur.There were 5,804 new cases diagnosed with coronavirus on Thursday - 5.7% of those screened tested positive. Some 1,102 people were being treated in the hospital, including 678 in serious condition.“Unfortunately, for populist and political reasons, there were politicians who prevented us from doing a short, tight closure that we wanted and that would have saved hundreds of people,” Netanyahu said at the vaccination event.He called on politicians “to come to their senses.”Defense Minister Benny Gantz responded by saying that, “Enforcement and prevention in places where it is necessary prevents closures in places where they are not needed.”Moreover, Science and Technology Minister Yizhar Shay said Friday that he met with top members of the coronavirus advisory team and they reported "encouraging signs of moderation and perhaps even a decreased in the reproduction rate. The next few days are very important for understanding the condition of the disease and the effect of the current closure on mitigating the rate of increase.He said that "there is no need to frighten the public" with threats of extensions and restrictions. Rather, the models show that it may be possible to life the lockdown on time - by a week from Sunday. Moreover, he said that closing the education system would have no significant impact, according to expert models.The Health Ministry had said that tightening restrictions would mean closing classrooms for students in grades 5 through 10, reducing the number of people allowed to be in offices and further restricting movement."We have to wait another week," Shay said. "There is no need to make dramatic decisions right now."Health officials have stressed that the two-dose Pfizer vaccine regimen means that the vaccine is only fully effective about five weeks after the first dose. This means it could take until sometime in February for enough elderly and high-risk people to be vaccinated to help lower the spread of infection and begin further opening up the economy.Moreover, the risk of catching coronavirus after the first jab has been confirmed in that some 15,000 patients who received the first dose of the vaccine were screened and 428 were confirmed positive for corona, according to reports. Some 12 people were hospitalized. It is possible that some of them were exposed to the virus even before being vaccinated.