There were only four new cases of the virus reported on Monday and all infection indices are trending downward for several weeks, the Health Ministry said, and Israelis are edging closer to a complete return to their pre-pandemic routines.
However, health officials said that certain forms of surveillance will remain in place to help prevent an escalation.
“The abolition of the green and purple ribbons does not mark the end of the coronavirus pandemic, and there are still restrictions that are needed to reduce the possibility of new outbreaks and keep infection levels low in Israel,” the ministry said in a statement Tuesday morning.
First and foremost, will be how the Health Ministry handles coronavirus outbreaks.
The country has a few outbreaks per week, mainly in schools, according to Tomer Lotan, executive director at the National Coronavirus Task Force. In these situations, the ministry has a tight protocol of testing and quarantine for the school.
If there is one case, the student’s entire class enters isolation and the whole grade is tested. If there are two cases, then the grade is isolated and tested. If there are three or more cases, the whole school must be screened.
Lotan told The Jerusalem Post that this protocol has been “working quite well” since schools resumed in full shortly after Passover.
Second, restrictions will remain in place at Ben-Gurion Airport, in order to help keep variants that could be vaccine-resistant into Israel.
Anyone entering the country will be required to be tested for COVID-19 within 72 hours before arrival - including those who are vaccinated or recovered. In addition, anyone returning from a “high-risk” country - a place with an exceptionally high level of coronavirus morbidity - will continue to be required to enter isolation for up to 14 days.
Although Israel will allow some vaccinated tourists to enter the country, they will continue to be required to take a serological test to prove they have antibodies before traveling the country.
Third and finally, the Health Ministry is expected to rule on the vaccination of children ages 12-15 this week. If approved, the country could inoculate another around 800,000 Israelis against the virus.
So far, 5.4 million Israelis have gotten the jab and some health officials have said that the country has achieved some form of herd immunity, in that the virus is no longer spreading.
Nonetheless, if deemed safe by the ministry, vaccinating children will provide an additional level of protection against infection in general and new variants specifically.
The Pfizer vaccine has proven at least mostly effective against the British, South African and even Indian variants.
Lotan said that the ministry would not require vaccinating children, just as it did not require adults to get inoculated.
He said that the ministry is working to be very “transparent and complete” in its evaluation of whether or not to recommend vaccination for this younger population.
“I believe that this week there will be a clear and formal recommendation by the ministry for the public,” Lotan said.