Coronavirus, is a clash between police and religious in Israel, Netanyahu closes Tel Aviv airport
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Alaina
- . January 25, 2021
- . Update: January 31, 2021 4:13 am
While the Israeli government decides to close the Tel Aviv airport for a week against Coronavirus, clashes between Haredim and the police have erupted in the last few hours in many areas of the country. The Haredim are the Orthodox Jews who follow very stringent rules of life, in particular, against the imposition of avoiding gatherings to block Covid-19. After those of the past few days, clashes occurred today in Jerusalem, Ashdod, and again in Beni Brak, not far from Tel Aviv.
In Jerusalem, in the Haredim neighborhood of Mea Shearim, hundreds of people clashed with police, trying to close an illegally opened yeshiva (religious school). The policemen were targeted by throwing garbage and other objects with screams of “Nazis.” Similar scenes in Ashdod, a coastal city in the south of the country, where four officers have been injured in the incidents that occurred when the police tried to interrupt the lessons of a religious elementary school open despite the provisions.Even in Bnei Brak, a town with a prevalence of Haredim – already the scene of clashes in past days – the police tried to close a religious school linked to the Hasidic rabbi Vizhnitz.
Ben Gurion Airport closed until January 31
Israel has decided to close its main airport, Ben Gurion, until January 31 to contain the spread of Covid-19. The decision was announced by the premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the opening of a cabinet meeting in which measures to curb foreign arrivals in light of the new variants of the virus were discussed, Israeli media reported. “We are ahead of any other country in the world. No one has done what we are doing,” Netanyahu said in announcing the closure of the international airport located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In the meeting, Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced a crackdown on violators of anti-Covid measures with higher fines.
Israel, where a quarter of the population has already received the first dose of the vaccine, has initiated immunization for the 16-18 age group to allow children to take part in the year-end exams face to face. The country is currently in its third lockdown, and Netanyahu, awaited by new elections, has allowed the Nation to overcome the emergency already in February.
After vaccine,over 60s hospitalizations drop
The first data collected by an Israeli health insurance fund, Maccabi, indicates a sharp decline in hospital admissions of over 60s, three weeks after receiving the Pfizer vaccine first dose. The Times of Israel writes that, for vaccinated people over 60, from day 23 onwards, from two days after the second vaccination, hospitalizations fell by 60% compared to the data collected for the same category in the days immediately following the first vaccination.
The data refer to a sample of over 50 thousand patients. A researcher from the Weizman Institute of Rehovot, Professor Eran Segal, writes that among the seriously ill hospitalized in Israel for Coronavirus, there is a decline in those over 60 years old and a sharp increase between ’40-’50s. The researcher warns that today this is only a correlation of data, and it is not yet possible to establish that this is a consequence of the mass vaccination of the over 60s.
