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Battling COVID: Weekly Update

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

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A patient casts a ballot from bed at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center on March 23, 2021 (courtesy of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center)

In COVID wards, patients in pajamas take long trip down the corridor to vote

By Nathan Jeffay

Hospital voting gets underway with hazmat suits, oxygen tubes and ballots via airlocks, in stark collision of pandemic and politics

A man votes during a demonstration of a drive-thru polling station, ahead of the upcoming elections, at the central elections committee warehouse in Modi'in, on February 23, 2021. (Flash90)

Socially distanced democracy: Israel votes in a pandemic

By Nathan Jeffay

The Central Elections Committee counts ballots from soldiers and absentee voters at the Knesset in Jerusalem, April 10, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Passover, COVID restrictions could see clear election results delayed by days

Gilly Regev, an Israeli-raised scientist who co-founded the company SaNOtize, uses the new nasal spray she developed (Screen grab)

‘Life-saving’ nose spray that kills 99.9% of viruses begins production in Israel

By Nathan Jeffay

Health Ministry-approved labeling says antiviral is effective within 2 minutes; can save many lives in countries without access to vaccines, says inventor

Polling stations in Corridor E at Ben Gurion Airport, on election day, March 23, 2021 (Israel Airport Authority)

In Corridor E at Ben Gurion, election day arrivals get to vote before quarantine

By Tal Schneider

Amid the pandemic, Israel’s first-ever airport polling stations are open — though not to those who are safely vaccinated, or travelers on their way out

9,000 pass through Ben Gurion, mostly departures, as travel rules eased

Battered by pandemic, some ultra-Orthodox question supporting Haredi parties

High Court annuls daily cap on number of citizens allowed to return to Israel

By Michael Bachner

Illustrative: A medical worker prepares a COVID-19 vaccine at a Clalit vaccination center in Jerusalem on February 25, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Pfizer vaccine less effective against South African variant, Israeli study finds

Inoculation highly effective against British strain, offers more protection than does recovery from COVID-19, Ben Gurion scientists say

Medical staff administer the AstraZeneca vaccine at La Nuvola convention center in Rome, March 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

In trial, AstraZeneca 100% effective against severe cases, no raised clot risk

A file photo taken on February 6, 2021 shows a box containing vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Foch hospital in Suresnes, France (Alain JOCARD / AFP)

AstraZeneca may have used outdated info in vaccine trial, says US

By AP

Hena, a Yazidi newborn from Sinjar, waits in a Duhok hospital for permission to enter Israel for life-saving heart surgery. (Shevet Achim)

Kurdish babies’ lives hang in balance as Israeli red tape blocks their last hope

By Lazar Berman

Doctors near Tel Aviv are ready to operate, but a hellish bureaucratic mess between government bodies means sick children are being kept from surgery that can save their lives

Analysis

Oh, how I’ve missed shmoozing in shul

The COVID-19 crisis stripped us of the kind of lighthearted – and important — encounters that happen at a typical Shabbat morning kiddush

Photos of the Krieger family and a graphic t-shirt of the word 'orbisculate,' which Hilary and Jonathan Krieger are working to get into the dictionary in honor of their late father, Neil. (Courtesy)

Spread the word

You can’t look it up… yet: Siblings seek to honor late dad with ‘orbisculate’

By Cathryn J. Prince

The large vaccination center in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

With most adults vaccinated, Israel’s large inoculation centers start to close

As pace slows, Tel Aviv shuts major sites; focus shifts to smaller communities as health providers run mobile units in various places with low rates of vaccination

Hospital staff transport a new patient to the coronavirus ward of the Ziv medical center in the northern Israeli city of Safed, January 7, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

Number of seriously ill COVID patients drops to 499, lowest figure in 3 months

Medical technicians test passengers for COVID-19 at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on March 8, 2021. (Flash90)

Positive test rate for virus drops to lowest level since November

An Israeli medic waits during an event to encourage the vaccination of young Israelis at a vaccination center in Holon, Feb. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

In precedent, court rules school can bar unvaccinated, untested worker

By Michael Bachner

Labor court defends right of schools to stop employees who refuse to get inoculated from coming to work unless they take regular COVID-19 tests

Bezeq workers installing fiber optic cables. (Courtesy)

Bezeq subsidiaries warn unvaccinated workers will be sent home without pay — TV

Molly Livingstone

It sucks to be me: Elections, pandemic and Passover

If you think all is right in the world, then don’t read this; just skip along down the street, with singing butterflies and birds that don’t poop, giving elbow high-fives

Bazy Swirsky Rubin

When a group of women who don’t know each other come together with crayons and improv, and then laugh until they cry, we all have reason to hope

Benjamin Kagan (Courtesy)

Coronavirus crisis

Tech troubles? No problem! US youth help seniors navigate COVID challenges

By Renee Ghert-Zand

A child wearing a face mask at the Kramim school in Jerusalem on November 1, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Kids’ quarantine, every parent’s nightmare, could soon be eased, doctors predict

By Nathan Jeffay

As vaccinations kick in, chance of children infecting elderly Israelis diminishes; MDs say this may eliminate need for mandatory isolation of entire classes

Palestinian Authority employees sign in West Bank Palestinians to be vaccinated against the coronavirus on March 21, 2021 (WAFA)

Palestinian Authority begins West Bank coronavirus vaccine campaign

By Aaron Boxerman

So far, enough shots have arrived in Ramallah to inoculate about 1% of the West Bank’s Palestinian population

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas receives his first shot of COVID-19 vaccine, March 20, 2021. (Screenshot/WAFA)

Abbas receives first vaccine dose as Palestinian inoculation drive set to begin

Illustrative: Members of a humanitarian aid agency disinfect Ibn Sina hospital as prevention against coronavirus in the city of Idlib, Syria, March 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Damascus hospitals hit full capacity amid COVID spike

By AP

Illustrative: A tractor plows a field in Kibbutz Tzora near the city of Beit Shemesh on June 25, 2015. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

A year of COVID-19 lockdowns revives Israel’s kibbutz movement

By Linda Gradstein

Israelis at a cafe in Tel Aviv on March 11, 2021. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Analysis

Shoshanna Solomon

As economy reawakens, fears of sluggish rebound for labor market linger

Ministry offers grants to encourage furloughed employees to return to work; former Bank of Israel head Karnit Flug warns that tackling unemployment is key to recovery

El Al Airlines' Boeing 737s are pictured on the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, March 10, 2020. (Jack Guez/ AFP/ File)

Israel to bail out El Al by buying $210m of advance tickets for security teams

A worker at a restaurant in Tel Aviv hangs a 'help wanted' sign on the window, on March 3, 2021. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Unemployment down to 16.7% in February as economy reopens

Illustrative: Lay cantor Gary Levine sings at home in Los Angeles. (Courtesy of Levine)

US synagogues don’t rush to reopen, even as vaccines make gatherings safer

More Headlines

Illustrative: Students seen at the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, October 27, 2014. (Miriam Alster/FLASh90)

Universities set to resume in-person classes after Passover

An Israeli receives a COVID-19 vaccine, at Clalit vaccination center in Jerusalem, on March 8, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel still way out in front as vaccine shots worldwide top 400 million

By AFP

Coronavirus czar Nachman Ash during a visit to the Jerusalem Municipality on November 22, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Virus czar: 4th wave of infection unlikely, mask mandate to continue

Tourists stand in front of the temple of Hera in ancient Olympia, the place that hosted the ancient Olympic Games, on Monday, March 22, 2021. Greece's government reopened the ancient sites nationwide after four months as it prepares to restart the tourism season in mid-May. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Greece to allow in 10,000 vaccinated Israeli tourists per week

Immigrants from Brazil and Argentina arrive in Israel, March 1, 2021. (Avishag Shar Yashuv/IFCJ via JTA)

Despite pandemic, more Argentine Jews made the move to Israel in 2020

By JTA

Israelis enjoy the beach of Paradis Sweir, a desert resort located on the Red Sea shore, South Sinai, Egypt, during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, October 15, 2016. (Johanna Geron/Flash90)

Israelis to reportedly be allowed to visit Sinai within a week

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