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Tel Aviv: Israel will tighten lockdown restrictions in a bid to prevent a rapid increase in coronavirus infections that are occurring as the vaccine supply declines.
The cabinet voted to close all schools and non-essential businesses for two weeks starting at midnight Thursday. Before this, air travel will be allowed only for ticket buyers.
A partial lockdown, which began on 27 December and restricted movement and banned most client-facing business activity, did not manage to tame the virus.
While Israel says it has vaccinated about 15% of the population with its first dose of vaccine, it runs low on supplies. Other doses have been set aside for those already vaccinated, but the government has warned that new inoculations will be lacking until more supplies arrive.
According to local press reports, 100,000 Modern Inc.’s first shipment is due out this week.
According to the government, the virus variant identified in Britain is also spreading to Israel, increasing its outbreak. More than 8,000 new cases were confirmed in the country of 9.3 million in the last two days, totaling more than 458,000 since the onset of the epidemic, including 3,495 fatalities.