The Middle Eastern country, one of the countries with the highest number of immunizations in the world, set a new record for infections on Thursday. However, on the same day, the government removed the list of countries classified as “red”.

The contradiction is remarkable. In January 2021, when most businesses were closed, Israelis were asked not to move more than a kilometer from their homes. With 7,309 new positive cases per day, the measures taken as part of the third detention ordered by the local government.

One year later and after a massive vaccination campaign, the Kovid-19 epidemic is still raging in the country and is breaking records. Israel has now recorded 16,830 new pollution levels that have not reached this level since the beginning of the Pandemic. Still, bars and restaurants are open, with no restrictions currently in place. “We celebrated the New Year as if Kovid did not exist,” said Julian Bahloul, a former Franco-Israeli journalist based in the country.

A series of concessions

Meanwhile, the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Health Nachman Ash announced on Thursday that the list of “red” countries that have banned Israeli citizens from traveling due to excessive circulation of the virus will end. Earlier on Monday, the Israeli government announced that it would reopen the country’s borders to vaccinated foreign nationals, which had been closed since November 28.

Similarly, the Jewish state abolished its “traffic light” system and suggested whether schools should remain open until then. The device, which a class closed or not, depending on the vaccination rate, was reportedly abandoned by the government, ordering that this value no longer be decisive. The Times of Israel.

Screening rules have also been simplified. The new plan, unveiled at the beginning of the year, will allow people who have now been vaccinated to exclude from the quarantine the negative result of a self-examination.

The inclusion of the Pandemic period is a series of concessions attesting to Israel’s consideration, as well as the lower risk of the current Omikron variant.

A strategy that appeared last summer

The Hebrew nation facing Kovid-19 now intends to live with it. A strategy that really came up this summer with the Delta variant. To avoid a fourth lockdown, which could have been dramatic for the economy, the government chose the strategy of “soft elimination”.

“Establishing this strategy will put us at some risk, but given the overall situation, it is a necessary balance,” Israeli Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett reported in early July. Reuters.

All-vaccine at the heart of the system

The cornerstone of Israel’s strategy is actually mass vaccination of its inhabitants. The first in the world to launch a massive vaccination campaign using the Pfizer vaccine, the country currently has at least 71.8% of the population receiving a single dose but 46.8% receiving a booster dose.

The country is already learning about the benefits of the fourth dose in a clinical trial held at a hospital near Tel Aviv. In the process, the government has already approved immunizations and those over 60 years of age.