Corona Cabinet approved additional reliefs, including expanding the number of people allowed to congregate in an open area

Due to the continuing downward trend in morbidity, the Corona Cabinet approved additional reliefs, including expanding the number of people allowed to congregate in an open area from 50 to 100 people. Restricting the gathering in a closed space will not change at this stage, and will remain 20 people. The reliefs have been approved on the recommendation of the Ministry of Health and the Magen Israel program, and will take effect tomorrow. In addition, the validity of the regulations was extended by two weeks, until April 22.
Cabinet members also approved an increase in the number of people allowed to gather at events held in the yeshiva and where no food is served, for 10,000 people in large places in the open, while being divided into stands - and up to 4,000 people in the building. In addition, it was approved to increase the number of participants in events that do not take place at the meeting and no food is served to 750 people in the open. In addition, the ministers approved increasing the permitted occupancy in museums up to 3,000 square meters to one person per seven square meters.
The ministers also approved a temporary ordinance for Memorial Day, which allows members of bereaved families who do not have a green badge to be admitted to memorial ceremonies that take place in the format of a "green sign". At the same time, the Corona Cabinet approved the repeal of the directive regarding demonstrations, according to which "gathering" means not maintaining a person-to-person distance.
In addition, the cabinet members approved the creation of a category of sporting races, which will be called a popular sporting event, and will include running, walking, swimming, cycling and similar industries, in which up to a thousand people will be allowed to participate. They also approved correcting the definition of a competitive athlete who is a minor so that it does not only include those who are registered with an association or association until December, and allowed pools operating under the green mark to admit competitive and professional athletes who do not have a green mark at separate hours.
On Monday this week, with the return of the students from the Passover holiday, the capsules for third graders were canceled. In the current facilitation pulse, it was decided not to recommend canceling the capsules for fourth-sixth grades, and to first examine the effect of canceling the capsules in third grades. According to data from the Ministry of Health, until March 10, the morbidity rate among first- and fourth-grade children was six infections per 1,000 children. On April 4, that number dropped to 0.5 infections per 10,000 children.
Along with the relief, these days the professionals in the Ministry of Health are discussing the appropriate time to abolish the obligation to wear the mask in an open area. This directive was adopted almost a year ago - on April 12, 2020. In light of the encouraging disease data, the support of professionals is expanding to abolish the obligation to wear the mask in open areas, and it is estimated that this decision will be made in the next two weeks. However, the main concern is that the repeal of this directive will lead to the lowering of the masks even in enclosed spaces.
The declining trend in morbidity data continues consistently, with 376 new infections diagnosed yesterday - a positive rate of 0.7% out of more than 57,000 tests performed during the day. Adhesion coefficient (R-index) stands at 0.78 - a slight increase after already in recent days stood at 0.63. According to the head of the public health services at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Sharon Elroi-Price, the changes in the coefficient of infection in recent days do not imply an increase in morbidity, but a certain decrease in the rate of decline of the non-problematic epidemic.