Israel Halts Its Economic Reopening With New Rise in Virus Cases
Israel Halts Its Economic Reopening With New Rise in Virus Cases
(Bloomberg) --
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will put any further reopening of the country’s economy on pause after a renewed rise in the number of Covid-19 cases.
After imposing a near-total shutdown from mid-March, Israel has reopened segments of its economy from late April, with the latest announcements this week on a restart to public train service and large cultural events of up to 250 people. However, cases have also begun to rise to nearly 300 new cases daily this week from as low as 5 new cases per day in late May.
“There’s no doubt that we need to stop the illness,” Netanyahu said at an event Thursday. “It’s rising back. We finished with opening the economy.”
There have been almost 20,000 confirmed cases in Israel, with more than 300 deaths.
“There’s still the question of flights, but we’re not going to open more for now,” Netanyahu said.
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