What Israel Has Learned from the Pandemic

NACHMAN ASH, DIRECTOR-GENERAL, ISRAELI HEALTH MINISTRY: Well, as you said, we have lifted restrictions a few months ago. And since the Delta variant entered Israel, we have a rise in cases for the last few weeks. So, we are going a little bit back very easily, trying to keep up on with life. But we know that we have to fight the virus, not only with the vaccines, but also with some restrictions. So, when I look at England, actually, it’s very interesting to see what will be going on in England. But I believe they should be acting safely in order to fight this rise of cases in Britain.

AMANPOUR: So, apparently, it’s about 90 percent of the cases in Israel are the Delta variant right now.

ASH: Yes.

AMANPOUR: What actual practical measures is Israel taking, whether it’s in restaurants or nightclubs or on beaches or whatever, to have some kind of – – I think the government has called it a soft suppression? What are you trying to get people to do in their behavior to deal with this current outbreak?

ASH: OK, so the first thing is, masks. Use masks. We lifted masks a few — about two months ago, and now a few weeks ago we returned using them inside in places. And so we want people to keep using them. Then, right now, we are trying to get back the green pass that we used back a few weeks ago. And actually we are getting it into mass events, people more than — events with more than 100 people, like weddings and so on. So the green pass means that only vaccinated and people with negative PCR tests can enter the event. And, for the future, we are looking for a putting this green pass for even more events, like theaters and cinemas and so on.