- Israel on Sunday took another step towards normality and revoked its mandate for outdoor masking.
- Its vaccination is remarkably fast, with more than half of the adults being fully vaccinated.
- The Israeli prime minister praised the progress, but said the virus could return.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
With more than half of its population fully vaccinated, Israel on Sunday abandoned its mandate for outdoor masks.
Masks are still needed in public spaces inside, such as shops, malls and places of worship. But the change was a strong sign of the country’s progress against the pandemic, driven by one of the earliest and fastest explosions of vaccines.
The outdoor mask rule has been around for about a year.
On Monday, the country also took another step towards a pre-COVID-19 reality, which fully reopened schools for the first time since September.
According to the New York Times’ vaccination survey, 60% of Israel’s population had a first dose of the vaccine, while 56% had both. The country’s population is about 9 million.
About 81% of Israelis over the age of 16 have been completely vaccinated, Reuters reports. People under the age of 16 are not eligible for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.
Israel has overseen a rapid entry into force, and the effects appear to be. Sam Sokol reported to Insider that this was possible because the country had insured a large number of doses ahead of time and was assisted by the country’s centralized, data-driven healthcare system.
People along the promenade in Tel Aviv on April 18.
Amir Cohen / Reuters
A flexible approach to distributing residual doses has also reduced waste and expedited business, reports Susie Neilson of Insider.
Daily new cases peaked in January and declined to the low hundreds in April, Johns Hopkins University data showed.
“We are currently leading the world when it comes to the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Reuters. “[But] we are still not done with the coronavirus. It may return. ‘
According to Haaretz, in April last year, Israel began requiring people to wear masks outdoors.
Despite a general spirit of jubilation over the lifting of the mandate, some people are slowly adjusting and still prefer to keep their masks out, Haaretz reports.