Israel’s Parliament to Swear In Members in Threes Due to Virus

(Bloomberg) --

Israel’s parliament will swear in the 120 members elected on March 2 in groups of three in order to comply with the latest government coronavirus directives.

The usually festive ceremony will be split into 40 mini-ceremonies, so that no more than 10 people will be in the plenum at any one time, in line with Health Ministry guidelines. The visitors galleries, usually filled to the brim with family members and prominent guests, will be completely empty.

First up will be Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, closely followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Benny Gantz, who has been given the mandate by President Reuven Rivlin to form a coalition government.

When they finish, Netanyahu and Gantz will exit and the remainder of the elected lawmakers will enter three at a time, alphabetically.

The government has issued gradually more stringent guidelines in a bid to halt the spread of the virus, with the latest directives amounting to a partial shutdown of the economy. Israel has about 250 confirmed coronavirus cases, and about 50,000 people are in home-quarantine after returning from abroad or being exposed to known carriers of the virus.

There have been no fatalities.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alisa Odenheimer in Jerusalem at aodenheimer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Amy Teibel

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