After early virus success, Israel heads for partial lockdown
JERUSALEM, Undefined — Once a role model in the fight against Covid-19, Israel decided Sunday to partially lock down several cities to slow the fast-spreading contagion as the government faces harsh criticism over the crisis.
The government's ministerial committee on coronavirus decided to impose "a nightly closure" on 40 cities and towns with the highest infection rates, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
He said "educational institutions" would be closed with the exception of special education centres, and gatherings limited to 10 people in closed spaces and 20 outdoors.
"I know these limitations are not easy, but in the current situation, there's no way to avoid them," Netanyahu said of the restrictions set to begin on Monday.
Israel passed the milestone of 1,000 novel coronavirus deaths this weekend after the toll tripled over the summer, fuelling regular protests against Netanyahu's management of the health crisis and associated economic downturn.
The dead were commemorated by Yediot Aharonot, Israel's top-selling daily newspaper, which covered its front page with the names of the victims and called out the "shameful failure of the management of the crisis since May".
According to data collected by AFP, the Jewish state has risen to be ranked fifth in the world for the number of infections per capita over the past two weeks, ahead of hard-hit countries Brazil and the United States.
On Wednesday, the country with a population of under nine million confirmed a record 3,141 new infections in a single day.
The ballooning cases stood in contrast to the low number of infections recorded in the early stages of the pandemic.
'In the red'
When the first virus cases emerged in March, the government took swift action, cancelling almost all international flights, shutting down non-essential businesses and placing the country under lockdown for weeks.
By mid-May, after zero cases were recorded for two consecutive days, the government moved to expedite the reopening of schools, bars, eateries and places of worship, as well as allowing weddings under limitations.
Infection numbers began rising within days of loosening restrictions and since July the number of cases have risen to more than 130,000.
Some said the increase was due to lifting measures too quickly, coupled with insufficient economic assistance that pushed people back into work. Others blamed disorganisation in the healthcare system.
As part of efforts to control the public health crisis, the government divided the country's cities and towns into four colour-coded categories -- green, yellow, orange and red -- based on infection rates.
The 40 cities and towns subject to the closure were the "red" ones.
"If the closure is in our interest and to not spread the disease further among people, then there is no problem, even if there is suffering due to the closure", said Imad, a resident of the Muslim quarter in Jerusalem's Old City.
Israel's army will deploy 7,000 reserve troops to bolster police forces in "red" cities.
"We must put an end to indifference and disregard" for protocols, said Ronni Gamzu, chief doctor in the Covid-19 fight.
Gamzu highlighted a need in particular for vigilance in ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities, where case numbers have been notably high and adherence to health protocols patchy.
Mayors of four major ultra-Orthodox cities expressed outrage over the intention to lock down their cities in a harshly-worded letter to Netanyahu, saying they will not cooperate with authorities.
In an attempt to assuage their anger, Netanyahu denied discriminating against their cities.
"A 'red' city is not designated as such out of malice or arbitrarily, it's designated based on scientific data -- the number of sick people, the infection rate," he said in a video.
"Currently the focus is in Arab and ultra-Orthodox locales."
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz called on Sunday for sweeping lockdown measures, saying on public radio that "with 3,000 cases a day, there are no 'green' cities".
"There is no choice but to close everything, it is better to lock down the whole country for two weeks and become a 'green' country again than to stay in the red for months," he added.
But other key figures in Netanyahu's unity government fear the economic repercussions of locking down the whole country.
On top of that, the government could face pressure not to impose nationwide restrictions from the ultra-Orthodox community.
It is opposed to measures that would close places of worship ahead of the Jewish festivals of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur later in September. — Guillaume Lavallee
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New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
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