JERUSALEM Israel was educated by its recent success in fighting the coronavirus and lifted its mandate for outdoor masks on Sunday, while schools were fully reopened for the first time since September.
The country has taken quick steps towards normalcy following its world-leading vaccination campaign and the infection rate. About 56 percent of the Israeli population has been completely vaccinated, according to a New York Times database.
“Finally I can breathe again!” Eli Bliach, 35, an entrepreneur, said Sunday morning as he walked unmasked in downtown Jerusalem.
As the sun went out and the temperature rose, some people joked about avoiding masked brown lines.
But other Israelis were reluctant to remove the layer of protection that initially felt so strange, but to which many have since become accustomed.
“I’m not confident the pandemic is over,” said Ilana Danino, 59, a beautician and groom who wore another mask as she walked down an almost empty downtown street. “It’s still around the world.”
Besides, she said: ‘I feel good when I wear it, while pointing to the air around her and explaining that spring can still cause allergies and the spread of other viruses.
Israel’s health minister, Yuli Edelstein, has urged people to continue wearing masks for access to public spaces inside, where they are still needed.
Daily new coronavirus infections in Israel have dropped from a peak of 10,000 in January to about 100 in recent days. Prof. Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science said on Twitter last week, with 85 percent of people aged 16 and older in Israel vaccinated or recovering from the virus, “Life is close to pre-Covid.”
As part of the transition, Israel has introduced a “green pass” system that allows people who are vaccinated or recovered to eat indoors in restaurants, stay in hotels and attend major cultural, sporting and religious gatherings.
However, there are new concerns after several cases of a double-mutated virus variant first detected in India, B.1.617, were identified in Israel last week. Prof. Nachman Ash, Israel’s coronavirus tsar, told the Hebrew news website Ynet on Sunday that the variant may have some characteristics that could make those who have been vaccinated vulnerable to infection.
Israel is preventing any further entry into the variant, he said as he tried to learn more about it and how it behaves in other parts of the world.