Israel celebrated the three-day holiday of Purim that commenced on Thursday and was marked through Sunday amid restrictions to stem the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and police raids to detect and disperse illegal gatherings and parties.
A night lockdown commenced from 20:30 in the evening until 05:00 in the morning during the weekend nights and restrictions were imposed on public transportation.
During all hours of the day, mass events were banned, meaning that Purim parades, gatherings, performances were not held.
However, thousands of people gathered to party in various locations in Tel Aviv and other areas in breach of the restrictions. The police did little to disperse the gatherings.
The police reported that it raided and broke up hundreds of illegal events around the country and wrote thousands of reports to citizens caught violating the bans.
On Saturday night, police clashed with revelers at several locations in the capital.
On Sunday, the police shut down all public transportation to Jerusalem in an attempt to block the holding on mass celebrations and Hassidic tischs, mostly in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.
The Health Ministry reported Sunday that the reproduction rate has reached 0.99 and that the next stage of reliefs in the restrictions are now in danger. An R-value of 1 means the virus is again spreading.
The effect of the Purim parties on the state of the pandemic in Israel will be apparent in 10 days to two weeks.
Israel’s Corona Czar Prof. Nachman Ash to Israel Radio on Sunday morning that “we are very worried about what will happen in two weeks, it will undoubtedly affect our ability to open up the economy.”
The Ministry of Health updated Sunday that it documented 1,429 new COVID-19 cases over the past day.
Of the low number of 24,291 tests done over the weekend, 6% returned positive.
776 of the patients hospitalized with Corona are in serious condition, 293 of them are on life support.
Over 4,687,000 Israelis have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, some 50% of the population.
5,738 Israelis have died of the virus.
