Israel Drops Outdoor Mask Mandate as Covid Cases and Hospitalizations Plummet

Photo credit: Joel Saget, AFP via Getty Images

Israel, a global leader in the Covid vaccine rollout, has dropped its outdoor mask mandate effective Sunday, as new cases and deaths continue to remain low.

Of its population of 9.3 million, about 81 percent of those living in Israel over age 16 have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to Reuters. Cases have fallen to a 7-day average of 167 over the past week, per the Johns Hopkins University Covid tracker, and Covid deaths have dropped to an average of six.

“The rate of infection in Israel is very low thanks to the successful vaccine campaign in Israel, and therefore it is possible to ease (restrictions),” Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said in a statement Thursday.

The mask mandate still applies to public indoor spaces, and Israel is still implementing containment measures, particularly as a few cases of the Indian variant being reported. The country is closed to non-citizens or non-residents, except for special cases which receive approval from the Foreign Ministry. Additionally, anyone entering, citizen or not, is required to isolate for 14 days.

“We are leading the world right now when it comes to emerging from the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters. “(But) we have still not finished with the coronavirus. It can return.”