PM: Eased rules allow more workers; outdoor prayer quorums; some stores to open

Prime Minister Netanyahu sets out the general steps now to be introduced.

1. Raising the proportion of workers allowed at their workplaces from 15% to 30%;

2. Allowing high-tech and certain other workplaces to return more of their workforce, subject to certain requirements;

3. Introducing a certification process for workplaces where staff are properly protected;

4. Reopening some stores — including those selling electrical goods, household goods, opticians, and others. Shops on the streets, he stresses, not in malls or markets;

5. Prioritizing government offices that assist the private sector;

6. Restarting special education programs for groups of up to three children, and allowing kids from three families to be looked after by a single day-carer;

7. Adjusting public transportation as appropriate;

8. Allowing sport in pairs;

9. Allowing outdoor prayers of up to 10 — “a minyan” — with two meters between worshipers, wearing masks;

10. Working on a plan to deal strategically with elderly care homes and facilities.

These measures are to be approved tonight, he says, and will remain in force for two weeks.

If the numbers are still encouraging, further eased steps will be introduced then. If not, “we’ll have to go backward.”