Deja Vu: PM warns lockdown on horizon if immediate steps not taken to curb the Omicron

12 December 2021, 2:59 pm

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (C) leads a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on December 12, 2021. (EMIL SALMAN/POOL)

In a return to the warnings that became a staple of previous waves of the pandemic, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says during the weekly cabinet meeting that “if we do not take immediate and difficult steps now, we will reach a lockdown.”

“Right now our immunization rate is horrible,” Bennett adds as the government pushes to up vaccine numbers, particularly the booster shot, to curb the spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz says that he, too, is “very troubled by Omicron.

“There are all sorts of indications that it could cause serious illness. We have decided on a series of measures and an extension of existing regulations. The more enforcement there is, the faster we can get past this.”