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Battling COVID: Weekly Update

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

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People receive a COVID-19 vaccine at a Clalit COVID-19 vaccination center in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel nears 500,000 vaccinated, in new daily record; teachers to be prioritized

Health minister insists ‘there’ll be no shortage,’ with Netanyahu said to be in contact with Pfizer to ensure stocks don’t run low in January

Dozens of Israelis who had returned from abroad attempt to break out of a forced quarantine in the Leonardo hotel in Jerusalem, December 28, 2020. (Screen Capture: Channel12)

Forced hotel quarantine said likely to be nixed, as dozens try to break out

Screen capture from video of the Aluf Sade interchange, December 28, 2020. (Netivei Israel)

Lockdown lite: Closure sees patchy compliance, has little impact on traffic

Deputy Transportation Minister Uri Maklev holds a face mask during a press conference at the Transportation Ministry in Jerusalem on July 8, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/ Flash90)

MK warns of spiritual side effects as vaccination drive continues on Shabbat

By Nathan Jeffay

All 4 HMOs vaccinate over-60s on sabbath; rabbis say clinics’ computers violate rules, and they’re unlikely to give approval if there isn’t 24-hour effort on weekdays

Closed down stores at the Azrieli shopping mall in Tel Aviv on December 27, 2020, as Israel enters its third nationwide lockdown in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

‘This is no lockdown,’ top health official says as school, workplaces stay open

Magen David Adom worker at the coronavirus unit at the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem on November 1, 2020 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Ahead of lockdown, Jerusalem hospitals near to capacity for COVID-19 patients

A demo photo of a "Vote and drive station" provided by the Central Elections Committee on December 28, 2020, shows a model of a drive-thru voting station for coronavirus carriers that will be set up for the elections on March 23, 2021. (Central Elections Committee)

With drive-thrus for voters with COVID, Israel prepares for election in pandemic

Elections committee director promises 30% more polling stations, and 2 booths at each, to reduce crowds at March 2021 vote; nursing homes, virus wards to get own booths

Likud members cast their votes for the party list in primaries at the Tel Aviv Likud polling station on February 5, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Lockdown, tight schedule threaten primaries in upcoming elections

A man walks through a closed market amid a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, in Tel Aviv, September 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Third lockdown may cause additional 100,000 unemployed, official says

Analysis

I miss shopping. There, I said it.

I know, I know, there are real tragedies. But I can’t help it: I miss the heady feeling of enjoying something new – the sense of fresh possibilities

Times of Israel former diplomatic correspondent Raphael Ahren, left, and current science and health reporter Nathan Jeffay, right. (Courtesy)

Times of Israel Podcast

LISTEN: TOI diplomacy reporter debriefs on following Netanyahu around the world

Departing diplomatic correspondent Raphael Ahren reveals what happens on the road with the prime minister, and health writer Nathan Jeffay advises on the pandemic’s final stretch

A policeman advises a vendor at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, Dec. 28, 2020, during Israel's third nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Health Ministry reports 5,459 new cases, highest daily tally in nearly 3 months

Record 115,000 vaccinated on Monday, bringing the total to 495,000, more than the number diagnosed since pandemic’s start

Israeli children wearing face masks attend a class lesson at the Beit Hakerem school in Jerusalem, November 24, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Under new lockdown rules, 640,000 kids to return to remote learning on Wednesday

A Jerusalem woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a center run by the Clalit healthcare provider (courtesy of Clalit)

Israel hopes to start vaccinating general public in 7-10 days, top official says

Analysis

2020 was the worst year ever

If we have to pretend this year was a ’gift’ for discovering ourselves, how can we grieve together for what we have lost?

Illustrative: An Orthodox Jewish man walks past Parcare's health care facility, December 27, 2020, in the Willamsburg section of Brooklyn in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Analysis

Half-vaccinated patients at NY clinic under investigation unsure what’s next

As the Jewish-owned ParCare network undergoes what appears to be the US’s first inquiry into vaccine misappropriation, it promises to work with state to administer second dose

A man walks past a sign advertising the services of ParCare Community Health Care Network in front of the company's facility in the Williamsburg neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York, December 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Cuomo vows consequences for vaccine fraud as ParCare clinics investigated in NY

A sign on the entrance to a Parcare health care facility announces that they have "No Vaccines!!" in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, December 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Prominent US rabbi says he didn’t know his ParCare vaccination was not allowed

Analysis

When Orthodox Jews ‘disagree’ with the scientific consensus

That ’2 Jews, 3 opinions’ claim is real: Judaism prizes argument – for the very existence of dissenting voices prove the rule, and the unanimous decision is suspect

Doses of the Pfizer-Biontech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 27, 2020. (Ronny Hartmann / POOL / AFP)

Pfizer, AstraZeneca chosen for lab to foster Israel biotech startups

By Shoshanna Solomon

Consortium of pharma and tech giants, including Merck, Teva, Amazon, will run new innovation lab to develop ecosystem, tap into new tech

Undated file photo shows a volunteer receiving the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, in Oxford, England. (John Cairns/University of Oxford via AP, File)

AstraZeneca: ‘Winning’ vaccine formula is 100% effective against severe COVID-19

By AFP

Doses of the Pfizer-Biontech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, on December 27, 2020. (Ronny Hartmann / POOL / AFP)

Inside StoryHow BioNTech-Pfizer won the great global coronavirus vaccine race

By Hui Min NEO, Yannick Pasquet, Michelle Fitzpatrick and Yann Schreiber

Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom in Wheeling, which was West Virginia’s first state capital and home to its oldest Jewish community. (Larry Luxner/ JTA)

For the few Jews in struggling West Virginia, pandemic offers a silver lining

By Larry Luxner

A stock market ticker screen in the lobby of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, in the center of Tel Aviv, March 15, 2020. (Flash90)

Amid coronavirus, Tel Aviv Stock Exchange attracts most IPOs since 2007

By Shoshanna Solomon

Of the 27 firms that listed shares on the exchange this year, 19 were technology firms; ‘The high-tech engine has arrived at the exchange,’ TASE CEO says

An illustrative image of a merger and acquisition deal (designer491; iStock by Getty Images)

M&A deals plunge in Israel as pandemic sidelines foreign investors

By Shoshanna Solomon

Illustrative: Closed businesses for COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (Maridav; iStock by Getty Images)

Lockdown will shutter 7,500 additional businesses, report says

By Shoshanna Solomon

Visitors look out from the Lincoln Memorial across the Reflecting Pool at the Washington Monument as the sun sets on December 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images/AFP)

1 in 1,000 Americans has died of COVID-19, as country surpasses 19 million cases

By AFP

Johns Hopkins data show US has been recording at least a million infections per week since early November

In this May 14, 2020 photo, medical staff transfer a patient through a corridor at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, in Blackburn, England, amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP)

UK scientists test drug to stop COVID-19 developing in those exposed to virus

An attendee wears a yarmulke with an image of US President Donald Trump at a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House on December 6, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Oliver Contreras-Pool/Getty Images via JTA)

Republican official believes he caught virus at White House Hanukkah party

By PHILISSA CRAMER

More Headlines

Gal Gadot in 'Wonder Woman 84.' (Courtesy Warner Bros. Films)

Wonder Woman 1984 has best COVID-era box office debut; part 3 to be fast-tracked

A Chinese health worker (L) in a protective suit takes a swab from a Dalian resident to test for coronavirus, as the city carries out a mass testing program after new confirmed cases were found, in northeastern China's Liaoning province, on December 23, 2020. (Stringer/AFP)

China touts its ‘extraordinary’ success containing virus ahead of WHO probe

By AFP

Chairman of The Jewish Agency Isaac Herzog, center, meeting with children who immigrated to Israel during the coronavirus pandemic, December 28, 2020. (David Salem/The Jewish Agency for Israel)

Pandemic withers immigration by nearly 40%

By Stuart Winer

Tayebeh Mokhber is injected with the Coviran coronavirus vaccine produced by Shifa Pharmed, part of a state-owned pharmaceutical conglomerate, at a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, December 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Aref Taherkenareh)

Iran begins human trials for locally made coronavirus vaccine

A teenager search for cans through a garbage container in the center of Jerusalem on July 13,2020 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Virus crisis drives 41% rise in number of at-risk youth seeking help

By Stuart Winer

People wait for their numbers to be called for a place in line to receive a $250 grocery gift card available to Miami residents experiencing hardship and food insecurity due to COVID-19, in Miami, Florida, December 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

US House approves Trump’s $2,000 relief checks, sending bill to GOP-led Senate

By Jill Colvin and LISA MASCARO

People wear protective face masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus in downtown Tehran, Iran. October 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

Iran Red Crescent says Pfizer vaccine batch being sent by US benefactors

By Nasser Karimi

People receives a Covid-19 vaccine, at Clalit Covid-19 vaccination center in Jerusalem, on December 28, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Family, ministry say no link to vaccine as man dies hours after inoculation

A resident of a retirement receives a dose of the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine, in Loos, northern France, on December 28, 2020. (Francois Lo Presti/AFP)

World wrapVaccine campaigns expand worldwide alongside fears COVID spreading faster

By AFP

Satmar Rebbe Zalman Teitelbaum visits the northern Israeli city of Safed on November 21, 2019. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Rabbi Zalman Teitelbaum, US Satmar Hasidic leader, tests positive for COVID-19

Illustrative: Palestinian prisoners stand in a cell, pending their release from Ketziot prison in southern Israel, on October 1, 2007. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit/File)

Minister orders prisons: Don’t start vaccinating Palestinian inmates yet

A pro-democracy activist holds placards with the picture of Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan outside the Chinese central government's liaison office, in Hong Kong, Monday, Dec. 28, 2020. Zhang, a former lawyer and citizen journalist from Shanghai, has been sentenced to four years in prison for her reporting on the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. The activists demand the releases of Zhang, as well as the 12 Hong Kong activists detained at sea by Chinese authorities. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chinese citizen journalist jailed for four years for Wuhan virus reporting

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