Last Updated on March 17, 2020
Coronavirus: Israel’s latest emergency measures.
Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Moshe Kahlon – MK announced last night, March 16th, Israel’s latest emergency measures and updates to fight the Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak.
Updates
Effective immediately, here are the updates
- A general state of emergency but no lock-down. Lock-downs may be implemented in specific areas facing severe outbreaks like that in Kiryat Yearim (Telzstone) near Jerusalem.
- Companies with 10 or less employees must continue as usual.
- Reduction of services in the public and private sector. (Check before you go)
- Essential services: banks, supermarkets, pharmacies, medical services, welfare institutions etc. will be operational. Public transport services will continue to operate.
- Digital tracking software to be used to keep abreast of the exact whereabouts of Coronavirus patients for 30 days so as not to infringe on the people’s democratic right to privacy.
304 confirmed cases of Covid-19 Coronavirus have now been registered and you are urged to continue to keep a 2m social distance especially in supermarkets or where queues are generally long.
There may be some changes to the public transport schedule. It is advised to check the Ministry of Transport’s website for latest updates and instructions. (Anglo-List will try to keep abreast of these changes and will publish updates as necessary)
For the time being, Israel Electric Company have agreed to relax their policy for collecting arrears.
If you have a pre-scheduled appointment at Kupat Holim, please verify beforehand and check if your appointment has been rescheduled. If it’s not urgent, you are asked to please consider postponing the appointment for a later date so as not to overload the healthcare system.
In light of the large numbers of people who have been made redundant in the last few weeks, employees will now be able to claim unemployment if they have worked for 6 months in the last 18 months. In the days before corona, employees had to work 12 months out of 18 to collect unemployment benefits. (employment resources)
For the self-employed small – a NIS 10 billion package to assist small and medium businesses. Kahlon also announced his intention to inject NIS 5 billion into the Israeli economy.
Some of the large banks have announced measures to help private citizens and businesses during the current Coronavirus crisis and will be freezing loan payments, deferring mortgage payments, government guaranteed loans and deferring payment of municipal taxes. Note – each bank has it’s own policy.
