After hours of debate, ministers end virus policy meeting without decisions

A meeting of the coronavirus cabinet concludes without making any decisions about whether to apply local restrictions aimed at halting rising infection rates — with ministers divided on what limitations should be ordered, how broad they should be, and when to apply them.

On the agenda was limiting commerce, street store operations, markets, reducing public transport by 50 percent, and closing schools in red and orange cities — those falling into the top two categories of a color-coding scheme indicating virus infection rates. The education closure would exclude kindergartens and students up to grade 4.

However, ministers failed to agree on what restrictions should be applied and in what format, or when to apply them, according to leaks of the meeting reported by Hebrew media.

Though failing to reach an agreement on what steps should be taken to clamp down on public life, the cabinet did order that travelers returning to the country from Britain, South Africa, and Denmark be required to quarantine for two weeks, due to a new a mutation of the virus that has been detected in those countries.