Israeli media reports on Wednesday are full of good news for a change, with the Health Ministry reporting a continued decrease in the infection rate and the lowest number of seriously ill virus patients in three months. Furthermore, if the positive trend continues, Health Ministry officials are planning to lift further health restrictions in about ten days, according to a Channel 12 News report. In addition, coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash said on Wednesday that there will be no need for further lockdowns prior to the elections or Pesach based on the current infection rate.

A report by the IDF’s Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center on Monday stated that the thousands of Israeli travelers returning to Israel in recent days for the upcoming election are likely to bring various mutated coronavirus variants into the country. Health officials fear that new virus variants brought into Israel by returning travelers will endanger the success of Israel’s vaccination campaign. Health experts say that those who have recovered from the coronavirus are at risk since research has shown that they are vulnerable to contracting virus variants. Those who haven’t been vaccinated or have recovered from the coronavirus are of course, at risk as well.

Maryland will ease restrictions on restaurants and other businesses later this week, Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday, citing improving COVID-19 health metrics and increasing vaccinations. Starting Friday at 5 p.m., capacity limits will be lifted on outdoor and indoor dining at restaurants and bars, though customers will still need to be seated and distanced, the governor said. Capacity limits also will be lifted for retail businesses, religious facilities, personal services like hair and nail salons and indoor recreation establishments like casinos and bowling alleys.

Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem placed 80 of its employees who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID on unpaid leave, Haaretz reported on Monday. The hospital has set up an exemptions committee for employees who have a justified reason for not being vaccinated but these 80 employees, including doctors and nurses and administrative employees, have no medical justification for not being vaccinated, the report said. Hadassah said that one nurse who refused to be vaccinated was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Sunday night and all her patients, who are children, had to be placed in isolation. Last week, Hadassah CEO Zeev Rotstein banned medical personnel at the hospital who haven’t been vaccinated from treating patients unless they had a medical justification for not doing so.

Israel is providing shuttles to polling stations for Israelis who are positive for the coronavirus during the March 23 election, Central Elections Committee director Orly Ades stated on Monday. Accommodations will also be made for those in quarantine during the election by converting dozens of buses into voting booths, which will also reduce crowding in established polling stations. The number of voting stations, which is normally about 11,000, will be increased to about 15,000 in an effort to avoid crowding on Election Day. The Central Elections Committee has estimated that nearly 12% of voters – representing 15 Knesset seats – will have to cast votes in special voting stations.

Israel will not follow the recommendation of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which announced on Monday that fully-vaccinated Americans can gather indoors without wearing masks or maintaining social distancing, Kan News reported on Tuesday. All Israeli citizens are still required to wear masks in public spaces, without exceptions. Senior Israeli Heath Ministry officials told Kan that Israel does not yet support the measure as there is still a lack of information on whether those who are vaccinated can still contract the virus and transmit it to others while remaining aysmptomatic. Coronavirus czar Prof.

The 160-bed hospital in the Po River Valley town of Chiari has no more room for patients stricken with the highly contagious variant of COVID-19 first identified in Britain that has put hospitals in Italy’s northern Brescia province on high alert. That history was repeating itself one year after Lombardy became the epicenter of Italy’s pandemic was a sickening realization for Dr. Gabriele Zanolini, who runs the COVID ward in the M. Mellini Hospital in the once-walled city that maintains its medieval circular street pattern. “You know that there are patients in the emergency room, and you don’t know where to put them,” Zanolini told The Associated Press. “This for me is anguish, not to be able to respond to people who need to be treated.

Prof. Ran Balicer, who heads Magen Yisrael, the medical advisory panel to the coronavirus cabinet, told Ynet that although he supports the reopening of the Israeli economy, he wouldn’t have recommended opening everything at once. “If they would have consulted with us, we would have recommended differently,” Balicer said. “For example, all the large gatherings – there’s no reason to open everything at once. After the national effort that was invested, now is the time to experiment with “green passport” outlines because Israel is the only country that can do so.” Israel’s regulations now allow gatherings at sports and cultural events of up to 500 people indoors and 750 people outdoors.

Israeli health officials have been unable to identify the source of the first three cases of the New York variant found in Israel because the carriers did not fully cooperate with epidemiological investigators, Army Radio reported on Monday. Three residents of Jerusalem, members of the same family, were diagnosed with the New York coronavirus variant – the first carriers of the variant who had not been abroad or in contact with someone who had been abroad. The Shin Bet has also not been able to trace the source of the infection, the report said. Health officials are worried that the variant is silently spreading through Israel.

Israel’s Health Ministry reported on Monday that Israel’s basic reproduction number (R) has decreased from 1.02 to 0.99. However, there is a worrying increase in the R number (how many people each virus carrier infects) in the Chareidi sector, from 1 to 1.07. A reproduction number above 1 means that the outbreak is worsening rather than abating. In the Arab sector, the R number has decreased from 1.04 to 0.98. The ministry reported 2,331 new coronavirus cases as of Monday morning, with tests showing a positivity rate of 3.7%, the lowest percentage in months. However, 9% of new coronavirus patients are from the Chareidi sector, with a positivity rate of 4.8%. There are currently 708 seriously ill patients, of whom 223 are ventilated.