LOOK: Israel’s New Normal No Longer Requires Wearing Face Masks Outdoors

The country has administered over 10 million doses of vaccines.
by | April 21, 2021


On April 17, Israel’s Director of the Ministry of Health Prof. Hezi Levy announced the amendment in the country’s Public Health Order, dropping the mandate on wearing face masks outdoors beginning April 18. Wearing face masks became mandatory in the country in April 2020.

With less than 100 new daily cases and more than half of the age group qualifies to receive doses of vaccine, Israel has now become one of the leading countries that emerged successfully from their COVID-19 response. Citizens over the age of 16 qualify for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 81% of which have already received both doses.

 

Vaccination in Israel

Vaccine rollouts began as early as December 2020 in Israel. In just two weeks, the country was already able to vaccinate 9% of its population.

Out of approximately nine million, 56% are fully vaccinated while 60% have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, according to a tracker by The New York Times. This means over 10.3 million doses have been administered, with 116 out of 100 people.

Despite the ability to finally go mask-free outdoors, citizens are still required to wear face masks indoors and follow other safety protocols, especially at venues like houses of worship, stores, and malls.

Aside from the amendment in the Public Health Order, schools in Israel have fully reopened beginning April 19 after closing in September 2020.

 

Who is fully vaccinated?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an individual is fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their second dose in a 2-dose series vaccine or two weeks after a single-dose vaccine.

 

Vaccination in the Philippines

As of April 13, 2021, 3,025,600 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to the Philippines; 1,255,716 of which have been administered to recipients. Nearly 1.1 million Filipinos have already received their first dose of the vaccine while 162,065 have already been fully vaccinated, which is 0.2% of the country’s population.

 

As of writing, the Philippines has over 945,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases with a death toll of 16,048. 

When she’s not writing, Ina’s busy curating playlists that will save her when words don’t work, reading, annoying her cat, or thinking of her next meal.

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