Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces new countrywide lockdown starting Friday amid surge in virus cases.
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel will reinstate a strict countrywide lockdown this week amid a stubborn surge in coronavirus cases. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement in a televised speech Sunday. Beginning Friday, the eve of the Jewish New Year, schools, restaurants, malls and hotels among other businesses will shut down and restrictions on movement will be imposed. The lockdown is expected to last at least three weeks, when measures may be eased depending on morbidity. Israel has seen a spike in cases over recent weeks that more tempered measures failed to bring down. It now has one of the world’s worst outbreaks, adjusted for population.
