Israel to enter lockdown again as second wave of Covid-19 surges

Minister resigns after Netanyahu announces 3-week shutdown over Jewish holy period

Israel will be locked down for at least three weeks, starting on Friday and continuing over the Jewish high holy days, the first significant country to re-enter an economically crippling closure, after failing to curb a second wave of the coronavirus.

Nearly all Israelis will be restricted to within 500 metres of their homes, and all non-essential businesses will be closed said Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, as new infections per capita hovered near the worst levels globally. Some organisations that do not deal with customers will be allowed to stay open.

“I know those measures will exact a heavy price on us all,” Mr Netanyahu said in a televised address, after one of his cabinet ministers resigned over the decision. “This is not the kind of holiday we are used to. And we certainly won't be able to celebrate with our extended families.”

The finance ministry expects a nearly $2bn impact on the economy, with unemployment already having surged to 30 per cent since the last lockdown. Mr Netanyahu suggested that more aid from the government would be forthcoming.

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The lockdown will disrupt both the Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur holidays, prompting one of Mr Netanyahu’s ultraorthodox allies, former health minister Yaakov Litzman, to resign from the cabinet. He lamented the fact that the lockdown had not been not imposed earlier, in order to allow for the holidays to proceed unhindered. Instructions on how to accommodate prayers on the holy days have not yet been issued.

A large number of the new infections have been concentrated in the deeply religious ultraorthodox neighbourhoods and cities, where Yeshiva students crowd daily into synagogues, and large, multigenerational families live in small apartments. An earlier proposal to lock down only the ultraorthodox and Arab cities failed last week, after Mr Netanyahu capitulated to his ultraorthodox coalition allies.

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New cases have surged past 4,000 a day in the past week, with nearly one in 10 of those being tested showing evidence of infection. That’s up from about 20 a day in April, when the nation emerged from a 45-day lockdown, and Mr Netanyahu reopened the economy within weeks.

More than 1,100 Israelis have died, with 37,000 currently ill. Health officials warned that the health system would be overloaded within weeks if the lockdown is not imposed.