Following a sharp drop in COVID-19 morbidity in the country, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzen Horowitz have decided to drop the need for large-scale outdoor gatherings at 5,000 participants, according to a government statement on Wednesday.
Entry to such events will still be restricted to holders of so-called Green Passes – namely those who have been fully vaccinated, those who have recovered from the virus, or those who have recently tested negative.
Bennett and Horowitz will bring the decision to a cabinet vote late Wednesday, with the new rules taking effect Friday.
The easing of rules comes as daily virus cases have slipped into the hundreds, and the number of severe cases has declined.
According to the Health Ministry, 727 new cases were diagnosed on Wednesday, taking the number of active cases to 10,275. Less than 1 percent of the tests came back positive. According to the ministry, the condition of 234 people is critical, of which 139 are on ventilators. The death toll stood at 8,073.
There has been a steady decline in the number of daily cases after Israel introduced booster vaccines.
A woman receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Clalit health care center in Jerusalem on October 3, 2021. (Jonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Besides imposing some restrictions on public life and venue attendance, the government made vaccination a central issue in its strategy to curb the fourth wave, which began in July.
In August Israel became the first country to give its general population a third vaccine shot as a booster for the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech inoculation.
So far, 6,225,127 people have had at least the first vaccine dose, of which 5,720,734 have received both shots, and 3,924,715 have received a booster.
While currently only people 12 years of age or older are eligible for vaccination, the country is set to start giving young children the shot after it is approved by US regulators for ages 5-11.
