By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency / Jewish News Agency
PM Bennett on the Decline of Serious Covid Cases:
“It is precisely now that we must be strict about the Green Pass,
be careful and not become complacent.“
Jerusalem, Israel — October 3, 2021 … Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, has expressed satisfaction at the decline in the number of serious coronavirus cases. Bennett also noted good news in regards to the increase in the number of people getting vaccinated and increasing signs that the pandemic has been blocked, without the imposition of lockdowns or far-reaching restrictions on the public.
However, the Israeli Prime Minister reiterated that there is still no reason to celebrate given that efforts to block the virus are still underway.
“We are at a critical stage, with the reopening of the education system and our intention to end large-scale quarantines and move to a model of extensive testing and the quarantine of verified cases only, ” said
Prime Minister Bennett.
“It is precisely now that we must be strict about the Green Pass, be careful and not become complacent.
I call on whoever has not been vaccinated as required – do so as soon as possible!
The vaccine saves lives and the extent to which people in the country have been vaccinated is what enables us to stay open and stay functioning.”
At the ministerial committee on fighting the coronavirus (the Corona Cabinet) Bennett stated:
“I am pleased to see everyone after the holidays and pleased as always that we will hear from everybody.
Friends, the news is good. We have started to block the Covid Delta strain but it would be very dangerous now to let down our guard. It is precisely when this wave of the virus is starting to subside, that we must do everything to make sure there is no resurgence.
We must continue to tightly manage the situation and not convey to the public that masks may be taken off, rather the opposite. I feel that in recent days the public has begun to understand the policy that the government has been leading since the outbreak of the Covid Delta strain.
Israel and the economy staying as open as possible, large-scale testing, large-scale vaccinations and booster shots, close and dynamic management of the situation and personal responsibility by citizens.
The next and most urgent task in my view is to finish as quickly as possible with the large-scale quarantines at schools. Children need to be in school not on Zoom or in quarantines that are not urgent.
Parents need to be able to go to work and families need stability. They need to know what is happening tomorrow morning.
Therefore, we have thoroughly studied what they are doing in Britain, Germany and the United States, I say here clearly: Large-scale quarantines in the education system need to end as quickly as possible.
Israel is currently preparing the infrastructure for the millions of antigen tests that will make this possible. We will monitor the pilot program and additional pilot programs that have started in recent days, and we will make decisions shortly.
Other matters that we will discuss are the vaccination campaign in the Arab sector, in which we need to increase the scope of inoculations, which is the main challenge at the moment.
Also, looking at the ‘day after’, cautiously: How can Israel enter routine, in the shadow of a global pandemic, without dismantling everything and without complacency. What happened – could happen again.
Israel will also prepare for variants that do not exist yet, what we call ‘Omega’, or a variant that bypasses the vaccines, which is the worst possible scenario. But even in such a situation, we as a country will not close up shop; we need to know how to manage things. Anything can happen.
And of course, we will continue to take care that our warehouses remain full and that there are always enough vaccines and drugs in stock.
The work being done is very good. I would like to commend the Israeli health establishment personnel who are on the front lines every day, in the hospitals, the HMOs, in the health ministry itself and in general all those are involved from all of the various government ministries. This is truly a multi-dimensional campaign and it seems to me that we are now seeing the light at the end of tunnel.
We must not be complacent. We cannot let down our guard. We now need to accelerate the pace of vaccinations.”