Israel now requires everyone over the age of THREE to show proof of Covid vaccination or a negative test before being let into restaurants and other indoor spaces – with country now ‘at war’ with Delta variant
- Covid rules in Israel have been expanded from over-12s to over-threes
- The country is in the midst of a third wave, with deaths rise as well as cases
- Health chiefs warned lockdowns will be required if the measures do not work
Covid restrictions have been extended to three-year-olds in Israel, with the country now ‘at war’ with the Delta variant.
From today, everyone over the age of three in the country must show evidence of being vaccinated or a negative test before entering restaurants, cafes, gyms and other indoor spaces.
The country — praised for its world-leading vaccination drive, which has seen two-thirds of adults get double-jabbed — is in the midst of a third wave that shows no signs of slowing.
Health chiefs have warned the nation faces another draconian lockdown unless the situation improves.
Daily coronavirus infections reached a six-month high of 8,752 on Monday, before falling slightly on Tuesday.
And fatalities are also rising exponentially, with 120 people dying in the last week — similar to levels seen in September, when Israel was in lockdown.
Israel has began testing all over-threes in an attempt to control the spread of the virus. Pictured: An Israeli nurse yesterday testing a child at the entrance in Jerusalem
Now the country has brought in stringent restrictions for youngsters in an attempt to control the third wave.
Until today, only over-12s were required to show proof they were double-jabbed two weeks earlier, or a negative Covid test from the last 24 hours before entering public indoor spaces.
The Government is paying for tests of those three to 11-year-olds who are not eligible for the vaccine and must show they are not infected.
But the 1million people in the country who have not been jabbed and are eligible have to buy their own.
Some 62.8 per cent of people in the country are double-jabbed, even higher than the 60.4 per cent fully immunised in the UK.
But while a similar number of people are infected in the UK and Israel, the latter is seeing a much higher death rate.
Experts have pinned the concerning trend on the three-week gap between the Pfizer jabs dished out in Israel.
In the UK, people are invited to book a second vaccine appointment eight weeks after the first dose, which studies have found to be the ‘sweet spot’ that provide the most protection.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Professor Salman Zarka, Israel’s conoavirus commissioner, told a parliamentary committee: ‘Our morbidity is rising day by day.
‘Looking at the data from this morning we cannot just say “maybe”. This “maybe” is worth the lives of the citizens of Israel.’
But he said no one who is in a critically ill condition has received a third booster Covid vaccine, he said.
Professor Zarka said the run up to the Jewish New Year festival Rosh Hashanah is the ‘critical time’.
And if infection and death rates do not beging to drop, ‘we will get to a lockdown like the first and second ones, where we do not go farther than 100 meters from our houses’, he said.
Dr Raghib Ali, a senior clinical research associate in epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, tweeted that despite Israel’s vaccination levels being similar to the UK, they used a three to four week gap between doses.
He said real world data has suggested this gap is ‘less effective’ against the Delta variant.