JERUSALEM – Israel on Sunday re-included its economy, including shopping malls and recreational facilities, and the government said the start of a return to routine was made possible by Covid-19 vaccines administered to nearly half the population.
Shops were open to all, but access to gyms, hotels and theaters was restricted to people with a ‘Green Pass’: those who had both doses of the vaccine more than a week before, or with the suspected immunity of the disease has recovered.
Passengers can prove their status by presenting a vaccination certificate or downloading a health ministry app linked to their medical files.
Exactly one year after Israel’s first documented coronavirus case, Sunday’s curb relief was part of a government plan to open the economy wider next month, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is re-elected.
“We are the first country in the world to revive itself thanks to the millions of vaccines we have brought in,” did he tweet. “Vaccinated? Get the Green Pass and come back to life. ‘
Download the NBC News app for news and politics
Mask wear and social distance were still in force. Dancing was excluded in banquet halls. Synagogues, mosques or churches were expected to halve their normal congregation size.
Primary school children and pupils in the past two years of high school have resumed their classes in towns with infection rates under control. High school students were still learning at home, but some led to a protest in the mall.
“I have not been to school for a year,” said 14-year-old protester Rotem Bachar. “How does it make sense to open shopping malls to crowds while we can not attend class if they even have 15 to 20 pupils and have other precautions?”
Israel has administered at least one dose of the Pfizer Inc. vaccine to more than 46 percent of its 9 million residents, the country’s health ministry said.
On Saturday, the ministry said the risk of disease by Covid-19 dropped by 95.8 percent among people who received both shots.
Meanwhile, a new Israeli study of vaccinated health workers at the country’s largest hospital has shown that the vaccine Covid-19, developed by Pfizer, produces a strong immune response after just one dose.
Israel has recorded more than 740,000 cases and 5,500 deaths due to Covid-19, criticizing Netanyahu’s sometimes infallible enforcement of three national closures. The government has promised that there will not be a fourth.
Meanwhile, Israel has faced international criticism for largely excluding Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from its extremely successful vaccination campaign, which has widened the persistent inequality with Israelis who began before the pandemic.