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Battling COVID: Weekly Update

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein visit the Teva Pharmaceuticals' logistics center in Shoham, where coronavirus vaccines are set to be stored and distributed, November 26, 2020. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Nearly 30,000 vaccinated in first two days of drive; 270,000 book appointments

By Stuart Winer

Health minister says vaccinations now to begin in old-age homes; call centers continue to be swamped

Vaccine drive revs up as Israelis over 60 start getting virus shots

Israel could be 1st nation to vaccinate its at-risk populations, by end of Jan.

Health Ministry chief says aiming to vaccinate 60% of population by April

People shop in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, December 21, 2020 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

With over 3,500 new cases, virus czar says fast decision needed on lockdown

Nachman Ash says infection rate can be lowered with a 3-week closure or 5 weeks of tightened restrictions; 3,594 new cases verified on Monday, with a 4.2% rate of positive tests

An Israeli medical worker receives a COVID-19 vaccine at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near the coastal city of Tel Aviv, on December 19, 2020. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Netanyahu said to seek a third national lockdown within days

By Stuart Winer and ToI Staff

Illustrative: Ultra-Orthodox Jews walk in Bnei Brak on October 14, 2020, during a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Bnei Brak, Beitar Illit, Elad in top infection tier as cabinet to meet on rules

A fenofibrate capsule. (Public Domain/ Dennis Sylvester Hurd, Flickr)

Israeli study shows generic anti-lipid drug may squelch COVID-19 severity

By Nathan Jeffay

Patients on fenofibrate, a drug commonly prescribed to lower fat levels, have ‘astounding’ outcome compared to others with coronavirus, Hebrew University team says

Medical professionals in full protective equipment work in in the critical care coronavirus unit, which was built in an underground parking garage at Sheba Medical center in Ramat Gan, September 30, 2020, amid a spike in COVID-19 cases. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Israeli who died from second bout of COVID-19 confirmed to have different strain

By Stuart Winer

Probe as to why patient, 74, who had been clear of infection, became fatally ill finds that second illness was caused by a mutated coronavirus variant

People who landed on a flight from England arrive at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Jerusalem, which is being used as a quarantine facility, on December 20, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel to compel all returning citizens to isolate in hotels from Wednesday

Foreign nationals to be barred; Israelis returning in next 48 hours from all destinations said to require home quarantine; travelers testing positive to be checked for new strain

Israeli travelers coming from the United Kingdom board a bus at Ben Gurion Airport to take them to a state-run quarantine hotel in Jerusalem, December 20, 2020. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Dozens of UK arrivals refuse forced quarantine at Jerusalem hotel, some fly back

By Raoul Wootliff and ToI Staff

Passengers at the Ben Gurion Airport departure hall on December 14, 2020 (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

Cabinet to vote on banning all international flights amid new virus strain fears

By Stuart Winer and ToI Staff

Israeli-American pianist Orli Shaham recently recorded the entire corpus of Mozart piano sonatas, which will be released over five volumes on the Canary Classics label. Volume one recently dropped. (Karjaka Studios)

Times of Israel Podcast

LISTEN: Pianist Orli Shaham riffs on recording improv master Mozart during COVID

An Israeli-American musician didn’t let a little thing like a world pandemic stop her when setting out to record Mozart’s Complete Piano Sonatas; Volume 1 hit shelves in October

Tamar Wyschogrod

I volunteered to take minutes – 2020 had other plans

As we made agonizing, life and death decisions for our community, the synagogue Covid committee I chair discovered we were on our own

Molly Livingstone

It’s not checkmate, it’s a lockdown

Take a moment and remember where you were this time last year. Did you throw up a little in your mask? Our new normal is a numbed reality of what was

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) smiles before receiving a coronavirus vaccine, from his personal physician Dr. Tzvi Berkovitz, at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on December 19, 2020. At center in background (in blue scrubs) is nurse Shoshi Gomel (Amir Cohen/Pool/AFP)

Nurse who almost vaccinated Netanyahu says hospital protocol was breached

Shoshi Gomel was replaced by PM’s personal physician, Tzvi Berkovitz, even though she had filled the syringe; she says it ‘took pressure off’ and ‘maybe Netanyahu trusted him more’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receives a coronavirus vaccine, from his personal physician Dr. Tzvi Berkovitz, at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, on December 19, 2020, becoming the first Israeli to get the vaccine. (Amir Cohen/Pool/AFP)

Netanyahu is 1st Israeli to get COVID vaccine: ‘Start of return to normal life’

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, 59, gets a coronavirus vaccine at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, December 20, 2020. (Screenshot/Twitter)

Minister slams public figures under 60 ‘cutting in line’ to get COVID-19 vaccine

Israeli singer Netta Barzilai, who won the 2018 Eurovision song contest, in Tel Aviv, January 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Behind the Headlines

Join ToI Community to catch our interview with Eurovision winner Netta Barzilai

In this week’s Behind the Headlines, exclusively for ToI Community, we sit down for a candid conversation with the Israeli pop star who took the world by storm

Facebook deletes antivax posts as prosecutors warn against spreading false info

Director of the cyber department in the State Attorney’s Office says dissemination of untruths about the coronavirus vaccine could amount to a criminal offense

A nurse seen during a simulated vaccination against the COVID-19 virus, at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem on December 17, 2020 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Poll: 63% of Israeli public, 82% of those above age of 65, plan to get vaccine

A medic at a COVID-19 ward at the Galilee Medical Center during the height of Israel's coronavirus crisis. (Shlomi Tova)

Analysis

Experts doubt highly contagious new British COVID can be kept away from Israel

‘We won’t be able to stop it,’ immunologist says of strain believed to be 70% more contagious; mutation lab chief: Without quick vaccination, we could face more wild-card strains

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu smiles before receiving a coronavirus vaccine at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan from his personal physician, Dr. Tzvi Berkovitz. Netanyahu, 71, followed by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, became the first Israelis to get the vaccine. (AMIR COHEN / POOL / AFP)

Vaccine insights

After PM gets 1st COVID shot, a psychologist’s 10 tips to get nation to follow

Unlike US, Israel has no strong anti-vax movement, so the right campaign will go far in winning hearts and minds, says Prof Golan Shahar, an expert on vaccinations and human psyche

Christmas shoppers in Oxford city centre England, Sunday Dec. 20, 2020. Millions of people in England have learned they must cancel their Christmas get-togethers and holiday shopping trips. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that holiday gatherings can’t go ahead and non-essential shops must close in London and much of southern England. (Steve Parsons/PA via AP)

Explainer

MARILYNN MARCHIONE

How worried do we need to be about new coronavirus strains?

As a new, highly infectious strain sweeps across the UK, experts say that at this stage it’s unlikely it will undermine the vaccines

Ugur Sahin, CEO of Biontech, gestures during an interview in Mainz, Germany, November 27, 2019. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)

BioNTech CEO confident vaccine developed with Pfizer works on UK virus variant

By AP and ToI Staff

Police and port staff turn away a vehicle from the Port of Dover in Kent, England, which has been closed after France banned entry from the United Kingdom for 48 hours due to a new strain of the coronavirus, December 21, 2020. (Steve Parsons/PA via AP)

Britain holds crisis meeting as Europe slams its doors against new virus strain

By AFP

A medical staff member receives a COVID-19 vaccine, at the Hadassah Medical Center, on December 20, 2020 in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

COVID-19’s long-term effects: Work from home and slower globalization – report

By Shoshanna Solomon

Rather than radically change the world as we know it, COVID-19 has ‘accelerated existing trends,’ Credit Suisse says in report on implications of the coronavirus pandemic

A man wearing a protective mask walks by a sign stating the number of unemployed in Israel, alongside the word 'Enough!!' in Tel Aviv, on July 22, 2020 (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

COVID-19 crisis plunges 50,000 Israeli households below poverty line – minister

By Shoshanna Solomon

More Headlines

US President-elect Joe Biden receives his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine at ChristianaCare Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware on December 21, 2020, from nurse practitioner Tabe Mase. (AP/Carolyn Kaster)

‘Nothing to worry about’: US President-elect Biden vaccinated for COVID on TV

By Jill Colvin and Alexandra Jaffe

A street coffee vendor walks by closed shops amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in the West Bank town of Hebron on December 11, 2020 (HAZEM BADER / AFP)

PA announces two-week closure throughout West Bank as virus surges

By Aaron Boxerman

A person enters the European Medicines Agency in Amsterdam, Netherlands, December 21, 2020, where the EMA's human medicines committee is holding an exceptional, fully virtual, meeting to conclude the evaluation of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

EU regulator gives conditional approval to Pfizer vaccine

By Aleksandar Furtula and Frank Jordans

Screen capture from video showing passengers performing CPR on a man who collapsed with possible COVID-19 symptoms while on a United Airlines flight, December 14 2020. (YouTube)

Man dies after collapsing with possible COVID-19 symptoms on US flight

By AP and ToI Staff

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a House Subcommittee hearing on the Coronavirus crisis, July 31, 2020 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool via AP)

Whole latke loveDr. Fauci prefers latkes to hamantaschen

By Gabe Friedman

An Orthodox Jewish wedding taking place in contravention to COVID-19 restrictions at the Hilton Chicago Northbrook hotel, December 2, 2020. (Screen capture: CBSN Chicago)

Oversized Chicago wedding divides Orthodox Jews, foils contact tracers

Likud MK David Bitan at the Knesset on July 31, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Netanyahu and Edelstein visit Likud MK in serious condition with COVID-19

Members of the Pnei Menachem community in Jerusalem celebrate Hanukkah without adhering to coronavirus restrictions, December 17, 2020 (video screenshot)

Hundreds of maskless Haredim crowd in Jerusalem for Hanukkah candle-lighting

By ToI Staff and AP

View Edition by Date

November	December 2020					January
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7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

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