Israel Cabinet Approves Third Lockdown to Curb Virus Spread

(Bloomberg) -- Israel’s cabinet approved a third national lockdown of up to four weeks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Stores, malls and most schools will be closed starting Sunday evening, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in the early hours of Thursday. The restrictions will be in place for two weeks, but if the basic reproduction number doesn’t fall below one and the number of new cases below 1,000, the lockdown will be extended another two weeks.

The Finance Ministry estimates that under its current configuration, the new closure will cost the economy about 3 billion shekels ($933 million) a week.

Morbidity numbers have climbed since Israel began emerging from a second lockdown in October. More than 3,800 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed on Wednesday, bringing the total since the beginning of the pandemic to over 385,000, including 3,150 fatalities.

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