Israel has abolished the obligation to wear face masks outdoors and completely opened schools on Sunday on the last return to the relative norm, reinforced by mass vaccination against the COVID-19 pandemic.
With almost 54% of the 9.3 million population receiving both doses of Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19, Israel has seen a sharp drop in infections and cases.
The forced wearing of protective masks outdoors, introduced a year ago, was abolished on Sunday, but the health ministry said the requirement still applies to indoor public spaces and urged citizens to keep masks on hand.
With Israeli kindergartens, elementary and high school students who have already returned to class, high school students who were kept at home or attended classes occasionally returned to the pre-pandemic schedule.
The Ministry of Education stated that schools should continue to encourage personal hygiene, classroom ventilation and maintain social distance as far away as possible during breaks and lessons.
Israel counts Palestinians in East Jerusalem and introduces vaccines there.
5.2 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Islamic Gaza Strip received limited vaccine supplies from Israel, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, the global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX and China.