Corona Cabinet approved: Street stores will open starting Sunday under a limit of four shoppers

The Corona Cabinet approved on Wednesday evening the opening of street shops starting Sunday in all authorities in the country, under a limit of four shoppers in the store. This, with the exception of the red cities where it was decided to impose a closure. Ministers Yuli Edelstein, Meirav Cohen and Amir Peretz voted against the decision.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first spoke out against the opening of stores at the hearing. "We are falling into the trap of a real and honest lack of evidence of the situation. We are not in a situation where if we release the closure we will not rise in morbidity. Sharp and smooth. We are now rising in morbidity because we have made the openness we did," Netanyahu said. The prime minister was in the minority in a cabinet flanked only by Health Minister Edelstein and Minister for Social Equality Meirav Cohen.
Later in the discussion, Netanyahu aligned himself with the ministers' position regarding the opening of the stores, but warned that this would lead to the addition of strict restrictions. He sided with their opening in green cities only, with a restriction to only four shoppers and without opening the major malls and shopping centers. "Along with opening street stores, we will have to add strong restrictions so that the coefficient of infection does not increase. At the time, we considered a night curfew," he said.
'We will increase the morbidity, there is no way to prevent it. The solution will be in other restrictions that we will make and I want to prepare them because they are on the way, "Netanyahu stressed." We can not promote the infection to rise. We will not wait for us to reach 1,500 patients. We offered at the time a night curfew and other things. We need to accept the principle that we knowingly cross the line here. "We will have to add strong restrictions very quickly, perhaps as early as Sunday," he added.
During the meeting, the ministers made recommendations to expand the scope of tests to detect the virus. Corona's commissioner, Prof. Roni Gamzo, recommended that the traffic light program be reopened starting November 15, in parallel with the third phase of the closure.
At the same time, the Cabinet confirmed that students will be able to study on campuses again. This, under conditions set together with the Ministry of Health, according to which the studies took place in an open area and in capsules of up to 20 participants in regular groups.
Prior to the decision regarding the opening of the stores, the Ministry of Health and Prof. Gamzo warned the Corona Cabinet against the increase in the coefficient of infection in light of the easing of the closure. In addition, they stressed that further relief should be reconsidered. Gamzo, together with the head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben Shabbat, said at the meeting that the increase in the coefficient of infection endangers the implementation of the planned reliefs - especially the opening of stores.
Prior to the cabinet discussion, staffs from the Ministries of Finance, Health and Education reached an agreement in principle that it would be possible to hold classes for first and second grades, without capsules, if it could be ensured that there would be no mixing at all in the afternoons. The move means increasing restrictions on after-hours programs, and increasing the budget for the authorities and operators of the afternoon frameworks in order to increase their scope.
Ben Shabbat raised with the ministers various alternatives regarding the opening of the stores. The NSC offer includes the option not to open; to open as planned as part of the second phase of facilitation; to open stores only in green cities or another option in which the stores will open with more significant restrictions on the number of buyers.
During the discussion on the issue of stores, Defense Minister Bnei Gantz said that "this is a difficult dilemma. I am in favor of opening the street stores in the green localities only, and imposing a closure on all the red localities." According to him, the numbers are still high, so this is an offer that is an informed compromise to have up to four people in the store. We must also take care to limit the number of people entering the supermarkets and large stores that are open today. "
Economy Minister Peretz opposed the opening of the stores because they did not approve the opening of the Big Centers. He said at the hearing: "We must keep the promise to open the street shops this coming Sunday, alongside the immediate opening of the open shopping centers, most of which are in the periphery and employ underprivileged populations." Peretz added that "we also need to allow tax relief for Israeli shopping sites, similar to international sites."
831 Israelis were diagnosed yesterday (Tuesday) as positive for Corona. This is according to data from the Ministry of Health. Yesterday, about 40,000 tests were performed and 2.1% of them were positive. Without the survey tests, the positive rate stands at 3.4%. In addition, 574 corona patients are hospitalized in hospitals around the country - 365 of them in critical condition. 162 patients connected to respirators. The death toll since the outbreak this morning stands at 2,592.
Since Thursday last week, 3,874 new infections have been diagnosed in Israel. 519 of them are residents of Jerusalem, 126 from Bnei Brak, 122 from Tel Aviv, 114 from Netanya, 113 from Nazareth, 91 from Petah Tikva, 91 from Haifa, 90 from Beer Sheva, 72 from Majdal Shams, 69 from Umm al-Fahm, 57 from Kfar Qassem, 57 from Sakhnin, 57 From Ashdod, 55 from Buqata, 47 from Taibeh, 45 from Beit Jen, 44 from Holon, 39 from Rosh HaAyin, 39 from Shfaram, 38 from Bu'ayina Nujidat, 37 from Modi'in Illit, 35 from Marar, 34 from a restaurant, 32 from Kfar Kanna, 32 from Beit Shemesh, 31 from Acre , 30 levers, 30 from Deir Hanna and 30 also from Mifia.