Some stores could open as early as Sunday, says head of National Economic Council

Shops could begin to open as early as this Sunday, while a return to school is not yet on the table, Prof. Avi Simhon, head of the National Economic Council, tells the Hebrew-language Ynet website.

“I assume that this coming Sunday we will begin to open shops that face out onto the street,” Simhon says, adding that the government will follow up on the data and decided on its next steps after a week or two.

“We will want to open malls, but that will take time. I don’t believe it will happen in April, perhaps sometime in May, depending on the numbers we see and how citizens comply with regulations and restrictions,” he says.

With regard to schools, Simhon says any return to school will be gradual and in a different format to what we are familiar with.

He suggest that families could band together to look after each other’s children in small groups.

Avi Simhon, chairman of the National Economic Council, at a conference of the Israeli newspaper Makor Rishon in Jerusalem, December 8, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)