Starting next Thursday, July 29, gatherings with more than 100 participants will start functioning under the Green Pass outline, but children under 12 will be exempt, the coronavirus cabinet decided Thursday.
In addition, the ministers said the UK, Turkey, Cyprus and Georgia will be added to the list of countries under the travel ban, subject to the approval of the full government.
The Health Ministry released new data showing that the vaccine remains 91% effective against severe cases of COVID-19, and only two mild heart inflammation cases occurred among children aged 12 to 15.
Regarding the Green Pass system for Israelis above the age of 12, and therefore eligible for a vaccine, access to cultural and sports venues, gyms, restaurants and dining halls, conferences, tourist attractions and houses of worship will be reserved only for people who are fully vaccinated, have recovered or have had a negative test performed in the previous 72 hours.
For the first few days, the unvaccinated will be able to undergo a test for free; after August 8, they will have to do it at their own expense.
“Those who refuse to get vaccinated endanger the health and freedom of all of us to work, to celebrate joys, and they harm us all,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a televised address on Thursday night.
“There are many countries in which there are not enough vaccines for the population, and the public is begging for them,” he said. “Here, the Israeli government is investing billions to make the vaccines available to everyone, and yet a million of Israelis simply refuse to be vaccinated.”
“Even for young people over the age of 12, we have taken care to ensure the continuity of our vaccine stock,” he added. “But there are still more than 600,000 young people up to the age of 30 who have not been vaccinated.”
Minutes before Bennett’s speech, the Health Ministry released new data showing that the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine remains 91% effective against developing serious cases of the disease. However, its effectiveness at stopping infection declined from 90%-95% to 39%.
The vaccine was found to be 40% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 and 88% effective against hospitalization.
This is specifically with regard to the new Delta variant, which is responsible for more than 90% of cases in the country and has been found to be significantly more contagious.
For people vaccinated more than six months ago, the effectiveness of the vaccine at stopping coronavirus dropped as low as 16%.
Among more than 1.8 million people who received two shots by January 31, some 5,770 contracted the virus, and 1,181 of them, or 20% of all new infections, were contracted last week, the Health Ministry reported.
However, of those who caught the coronavirus, only 495 people were hospitalized, 334 developed serious illness, and 123 died, including six in the past week, or 4% of the total.
The breakthrough infections were most prominent among people 60 and older. That could be because they were the first people to get inoculated and/or because older people have a greater tendency to be immunocompromised and prone to breakthrough infection.
In separate data, the Health Ministry found that among 178,836 teens aged 12-15 who had been fully vaccinated, and another 56,524 who had received at least one dose as of July 20, two of them developed heart inflammation.
One of the teens was hospitalized three days after the second dose with a fever and chest pains and released the same day. The other experienced a fever and diarrhea after his first dose, and five days later, he went to the hospital with chest pains. He remained hospitalized for five days.
Other, very minimal side effects were reported by the 12- to 15-year-olds who got the jab. The majority (nine teens) had general achiness after the first or second shot, three had pain at the site of injection, and three developed serious side effects that required follow-up.
During the coronavirus cabinet meeting, the ministers also discussed the situation at the airport, which is considered a weak point in containing the current outbreak, since about 10% of new cases identified in Israel are currently represented by people who came back from abroad.
In order to provide incentives for people to get vaccinated, the ministers confirmed that individuals entering the country from countries considered safe will not need to quarantine; in the previous days, health officials reportedly recommended that all inbound travelers self-isolate.
The list of countries under a travel ban, which Israelis cannot visit unless they obtain permission from the devoted governmental committee, already included Uzbekistan, Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico, Spain, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
Earlier in the day, Israel registered an increase in the number of patients in serious condition.
Some 75 patients were in serious condition on Thursday night. On Sunday there were 66, but the following day the number went down to 61 and slowly rose from there.
There were about 20 patients in serious condition around mid-June, with fewer than 200 active cases. Currently, the number of active cases is approaching 10,000.
Some 1,336 new cases were identified on Wednesday, and there were 1,406 on Tuesday and 1,381 on Monday, the Health Ministry reported.