The Ministry of Health is discussing a possibility of imposing severe restrictions on Purim holiday

The Ministry of Health has been discussing in recent days the possibility of imposing severe restrictions on the coming Purim, in order to prevent a renewed increase in morbidity, which has been declining significantly in recent days. Meanwhile, many people took advantage of the trade opening yesterday to buy costumes for Purim - and toy stores have long queues ahead of the holiday, which will begin on Thursday evening.
At this stage, the Ministry of Health has not yet formulated a decision regarding restrictions on Purim, with one option being to impose a night curfew to prevent gatherings on the streets, at underground parties or elsewhere. Apart from the possibility of a night curfew, the Ministry of Health also discussed imposing other restrictions that will help reduce contacts during the holiday.
The corona projector, Prof. Nachman Ash, has recently said on several different occasions, at press briefings and cabinet meetings that he is concerned about the upcoming Purim. Also yesterday, Prof. Ash read in a press briefing to avoid gatherings on the holiday, and warned: "It is possible to hold prayers under the green sign, it is possible to hold the holiday celebration in the family, but large meals, parties and tishs are completely forbidden. "There will be a re-closure of education, and if there is a wave of illness, we will have to return to the closure of the economy, to the point of closure."
Morbidity data have been declining for several days, mainly attributed to the vaccination campaign, but Israel still has a large number of new patients a day, patients in critical condition and respirators. About 4.2 million Israelis were vaccinated in the first dose and 2.9 million of them in the second dose - leaving many millions of Israelis who can be infected with the virus in Purim gatherings and rise again. In addition, the mutations that are spreading in Israel - especially the British mutation - raise great concern in the Ministry of Health about a new and more severe outbreak of the disease, even among young people, most of whom are not yet vaccinated.
Against the background of all this, the store opened yesterday after many months, and apart from shopping in malls and street shops, many Israelis took advantage of the opening to choose a costume for Purim. There were long queues at the toy stores, even though this year the schools are not operating as usual and many students will not be able to go to school with the costume at all.
This year Purim will be spread over three days since it falls on Fridays-Saturdays, which means that some of the day's customs - such as walled cities (Jerusalem for example) will be postponed to Sunday, but in most Israeli cities Purim will be celebrated on Friday, and Purim meals will be shortened Saturday. So far, the Corona Cabinet has approved holding holiday meals in a nuclear-family-only setting, excluding married children who will be allowed to attend the holiday meal. Also, the synagogues opened yesterday according to the green label outline and will be able to accommodate 50% of people with pre-registration. Another outline for opening synagogues allows ten worshipers inside and twenty outside.