JERUSALEM (JNS) — The Israeli government announced on Tuesday a new regulation requiring people to wear masks in public in order to help stop the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israelis last week to wear masks in public, and that it would become mandatory on Sunday as Israel enters a Passover-seder lockdown, reported Reuters.
Children under 6, the mentally disabled and people alone in their vehicles are exempt. The masks can be homemade.
Government officials hope that following the holiday, restrictions can slowly be eased. Defense Minister Naftali Bennett told Army Radio on Tuesday, “We will return to full routines within a year.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s youngest coronavirus victim—a 37-year-old man—died on Tuesday as the death tally reached 65 with 9,248 confirmed cases, according to Ynet. An additional 344 infected cases have been reported since Monday.
The man had underlying health issues.
Separately, controversial phone tracking has identified 1,500 coronavirus cases, according to the Shin Bet domestic-security service.
For the past two weeks, the Ministry of Health has been passing the names of confirmed coronavirus patients to the Shin Bet, reported Ynet.
The security agency tracked the phones and analyzed the data to find out who was near them and sent them messages to enter into quarantine; some 1,500 of them eventually were found to have the virus.[