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Battling COVID: Weekly Update

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

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Health Minister Yuli Edelstein speaks during a press conference at Airport City, outside Tel Aviv, on September 17, 2020. (Flash90)

Health minister: Moderna vaccines won’t reach Israel for another 2 months

Contradicting his own ministry, Edelstein says he doesn’t know about earlier shipments, though US-based firm said doses would arrive this month; calls to tighten lockdown now

Hospital heads: 3rd COVID wave shaping up to be worst yet; Edelstein: Like Italy

Daily infections surge past 8,300, with 7.6% of COVID tests positive

Moderna says Israel approved its vaccine, 1st shipment set to arrive this month

From the blogs

Sarah Tuttle-Singer

I let my guard down and got COVID-19 – This is what it’s like

Today is Day 7 and I am shredded and somewhere, deep within a well of memory inside me, I can hear my mother’s voice: This too shall pass

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu receives a coronavirus vaccine at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, on December 19, 2020, becoming the first in Israel to get the vaccine (AMIR COHEN / POOL / AFP)

Exclusive

Hundreds of Netanyahu’s office staff get COVID vaccine regardless of age, health

By Tal Schneider

Employees at Prime Minister’s Office receive shots even if they’re not in at-risk groups or are critical workers

A medical worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv on December 20, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Health minister halts vaccine supply to Tel Aviv hospital that injected teachers

MP Meyer Habib speaks at the National Assembly in Paris, November 28, 2014. (screen capture)

French-Jewish MP gets vaccine in Israel despite appearing not to meet criteria

Israeli women inspect lemons at the market in the northern city of Safed on December 9, 2020. (David Cohen/ Flash90)

Study finds ‘the strongest predictors’ of COVID-19: Loss of taste and smell

Researchers in Israel, UK, and US say the 2 symptoms are ‘omnipresent’ among those who test positive for coronavirus

Illustrative: Palestinian police check cars in Ramallah as part of enforcing a coronavirus lockdown on January 1, 2021. (WAFA)

PA extends lockdown restrictions as infections remain high in West Bank

An Israeli teacher receives a COVID-19 vaccine, at Shamir Medical Center in Be'er Ya'akov, on December 30, 2020. (Avi Dishi/Flash90)

Officials concerned by low vaccination rate among Arab Israelis

By Aaron Boxerman

Inside Story

Small wonder: How Israel rolled up its sleeves and became vaccination nation

Leading in COVID-19 inoculation, the country’s small size, high efficiency, and a healthy dose of chutzpah has it on its way to herd immunity; just don’t believe every bit of hype

File: A nurse prepares a vaccine at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, December 31, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Illustrative: A man checks the temperature of a shopper at the entrance to the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem on June 18, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Health Ministry says vaccinated, recovered to get ‘green passport’ for 6 months

Prof. Ronni Gamzu speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office near the central Israeli city of Lod, September 24, 2020 (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Often spurned by cabinet that hired him, ex-virus czar lashes COVID leadership

Interview

In Haifa coronavirus ward, a US-trained rabbi helps Muslims keep the faith

Mike Schultz, Rambam hospital’s spiritual care chief, tends to the non-medical needs of patients suffering from loneliness on top of COVID-19, whether they be holy or mundane

Rabbi Mike Schultz outside of Rambam Medical Center on December 30, 2020. (Nathan Jeffay/Times of Israel)

Reina Abitbul, 92, receives a Covid-19 vaccine, at the Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, on January 3, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel’s vaccination drive likely to be briefly halted next week

Analysis

Michael Eisenberg

Let my people vaccinate: Israel should issue a ‘vaccine visa’

By offering a visa that includes a free vaccination, Israel can leverage its global health advantage to become an economic juggernaut #israelvaccinevisa

Illustrative: Thabisle Khlatshwayo receives her second shot at a vaccine trial facility for AstraZeneca at Soweto's Chris Sani Baragwanath Hospital outside Johannesburg, South Africa, November 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

South Africa testing amid concerns vaccines won’t work against new COVID variant

By AP and ToI Staff

British health minister sounds alarm over virus mutation found in South Africa, says ‘it’s even more of a problem’ than the UK variant

Team member works in the coronavirus department of Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, on January 1, 2021 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Israeli task force warns British virus strain spreading, calls for full lockdown

Illustrative: Ultra-Orthodox men during a ceremony in Meron, near Safed, on December 7, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

A quarter of all new virus cases diagnosed are among ultra-Orthodox

By Stuart Winer

David Yeger, director of the excavation at Gethsemane in Jerusalem, in the Byzantine church. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)

2020 in review

As COVID hit, archaeologists turned to futuristic labs to dig up ancient history

By Amanda Borschel-Dan

Analysis

In honor of the nurses

They are the ones who run towards the fire on our behalf, even when they aren’t safe, even when their job stress is magnified by failed policies

Rabbi Adir Yolkut, who is doing a yearlong rabbi-in-residence program at Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York, says it's been hard to assess the intangibles of prospective jobs given the impossibility of in-person visits. (Emil Cohen/Marry Me A Little Photography/ via JTA)

Starting a new job as a rabbi during the pandemic? For Americans, it’s not easy

Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich stands outside the Learning from the Righteous mobile studio in London, UK in December 2020. (Learning from the Righteous/ via JTA)

Customized van helps UK Holocaust survivors record their stories during pandemic

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Israelis listen from their balconies as saxophonist Yarden Klayman performs a concert from a rooftop on Basel Square, in Tel Aviv, March 23, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Far from being curtains, pandemic ushered in new audiences for artists

By Jessica Steinberg

More Headlines

Screen capture from video of Holocaust survivor and educator Toby Levy. (YouTube)

Holocaust survivor pens NY Times op-ed on how COVID is ‘stealing’ her last years

By Gabe Friedman

Larry King attends the Friars Club Entertainment Icon Award ceremony honoring Billy Crystal at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York, November 12, 2018. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Larry King, hospitalized with COVID, moved out of intensive care unit

By AP

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) with Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab Jabarin, the millionth Israeli to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and medical staff in Umm al-Fahm, January 1, 2021. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Kan retracts claim millionth vaccinee was murderer; ToI apologizes for citing it

Likud MK David Bitan attends a meeting of the Central Elections Committee at the Knesset on March 5, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Likud’s MK David Bitan, sick with COVID-19, put back into intensive care

A beggar on Tel Aviv promenade (Gili Yaari / Flash 90).

Pandemic will worsen already high poverty, inequality in Israel, report says

By Shoshanna Solomon

Houston Health Department LVN Alicia Meza prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021, at a Houston Health Department's COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Houston. The department vaccinated 1,008 people who qualify under Phase 1A or Phase 1B of the state's guidelines at the clinic's first day on Saturday. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via AP)

US administers 4 million vaccines as death toll passes 350,000 amid new surge

By GARY D. ROBERTSON

Signage gives COVID-19 safety advice on the fence a school in east London, January 3, 2021. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP)

England imposes six-week lockdown, closing schools, as COVID cases surge

By Anna MALPAS, Jitendra Joshi and Callum PATON

President-elect Joe Biden waves as he walks from St. Edmond Catholic Church after attending Mass in Rehoboth Beach, Del., January 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Bridled by virus, Biden inauguration to feature ‘virtual parade across America’

By AP

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