Which workplaces will be first to open once coronavirus crisis cools?
The Finance Ministry prioritizes hi-tech firms and, only later down the line, gives precedent to clothing stores and restaurants.
By MAARIV ONLINE, TAMAR URIEL-BEERIBorder Police go about coronavirus inspections in Mea Shearim, a haredi neighborhood in Jerusalem.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
In the past few days, the internal committee of the Finance Ministry has formulated a list of priorities regarding the strategy for easing the coronavirus movement restrictions, according to Israel's N12 News.The priority list will be presented for the general committee of the National Security Headquarters parallel to the recommendations of the Health Ministry.Economic factors, according to the Finance Ministry, must recommence immediately to avoid a financial collapse of the state.The team put together three strategic principles for the exit from the lockdown.The first step is that essential and exporting markets such as the hi-tech industry must precede the trade and services industries such as clothing stores, cafes, restaurants etc. These companies will be prioritized because they were the least affected by the lockdown in the first place, and so the effect of returning them to the workforce would be minimal.The second step is that young workers integrate back into the workforce before older workers wherever that may be possible.The third step is to open work spaces with less crowded offices, within which the risk of infecting one another with the novel COVID-19 is low, before companies with a public reception such as banks. The lower-crowd offices include law firms, accounting firms and other such office jobs.The Finance Ministry's team recommended that due to the widespread economic damage as a result of the lockdown, a gradual release of certain jobs from lockdown must occur.An outline, according to the team, must also be created which would allow a significant return of employed people to their workplaces whilst minimizing the potential for a further spread of the pandemic.
