Eilat asks to become virus restriction free zone

The mayor of Eilat is asking that his Red Sea resort city be exempted from coronavirus restriction that will shut beaches and other spaces over weekends.

“It’s better that someone should be in the open air at the beach, better that there should be a wide array of attractions to prevent crowding, and better that they should come to restaurants and sit in public spaces,” Itzik Halevy says, according to reports in Hebrew media.

People at the Red Sea in the southern city of Eilat on May 13, 2020. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

He says tens of thousands of Israelis visit the town every weekend.

The city has seen 198 total cases since the start of the pandemic, including 67 in the past week. Over 150 cases there are active, but no patients are hospitalized in the city.