The government on Monday voted to open event halls and restaurants starting next week as Israel continued reopening its economy.
According to the outline, cafes and restaurants will be able to serve patrons outdoors. Green Pass holders - those who had received both vaccine doses or recovered from COVID-19 - will be able to dine indoors as well, enter event halls, conferences and tourist attractions.
Hotels will also return to full operations, including indoor dining areas.
Public gatherings will be limited to 20 people indoors and 50 people outdoors, except for in virus hotspots where businesses will be capped at 10 people indoors and 20 people outdoors.
The first round of leniencies will take effect on March 7 as school students from grades 7–10 are also planned to return to in-person learning in all communities with low coronavirus infection rates or those where over 70% of the public over the age of 50 has been inoculated.
Education Minister Yoav Galant's original plan, reportedly, would have seen students return to school even by Tuesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, reportedly, devised the plan to relaunch in-person schooling by Sunday unbeknownst to Galant.
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Students in face masks studying at a school in Jerusalem during the COVID-19 pandemic
(Photo: EPA)
Health Minister Edelstein said the decision was made after the COVID-19 R (reproduction) number, which indicates the spread of coronavirus among the population, rose to 1 after standing at 0.79 just two weeks ago.
Earlier Monday, the Health Ministry said it will begin vaccinating people who recovered from COVID-19 three months ago or prior with a single dose.
More than half the country's population of 9 million has received at least one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and about 3.4 million of them also got the second booster shot.