US tells Israel to ‘refrain’ from settler building as de facto freeze sets in

Elhayani to ‘Post’: If there is a suspension this government will not survive

The US publicly called on Israel to refrain from West Bank settlement construction as some settler leaders have warned that a half-year freeze on planning activity is already in place.

“I think there is definitely a de facto freeze,” Efrat Council head Oded Revivi told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday, noting that the facts speak for themselves.

The last meeting of the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria in which substantive projects were advanced was in January, before US President Joe Biden was sworn into office.

The council typically meets four times a year, but to date no additional meeting has been held – save for one last

95% to 39%.

The vaccine was found to be 40% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 and 88% effective against hospitalization.

This is specifically with regard to the new Delta variant, which is responsible for more than 90% of cases in the country and has been found to be significantly more contagious.

For people vaccinated more than six months ago, the effectiveness of the vaccine at stopping coronavirus dropped as low as 16%.

Among more than 1.8 million people who received two shots by January 31, some 5,770 contracted the virus, and 1,181 of them, or 20% of all new infections, were contracted last week, the Health Ministry reported.

However, of those who caught the coronavirus, only 495 people were hospitalized, 334 developed serious illness, and 123 died, including six in the past week, or 4% of the total.

The breakthrough infections were most prominent among people 60 and older. That could be because they were the first people to get inoculated and/or because older people have a greater tendency to be immunocompromised and prone to breakthrough infection.

In separate data, the Health Ministry found that among 178,836 teens aged 12-15 who had been fully vaccinated, and another 56,524 who had received at least one dose as of July 20, two of them developed heart inflammation.

One of the teens was hospitalized three days after the second dose with a fever and chest pains and released the same day. The other experienced a fever and diarrhea after his first dose, and five days later, he went to the hospital with chest pains. He remained hospitalized for five days.

Other, very minimal side effects were reported by the 12- to 15-year-olds who got the jab. The majority (nine teens) had general achiness after the first or second shot, three had pain at the site of injection, and three developed serious side effects that required follow-up.

During the coronavirus cabinet meeting, the ministers also discussed the situation at the airport, which is considered a weak point in containing the current outbreak, since about 10% of new cases identified in Israel are currently represented by people who came back from abroad.

In order to provide incentives for people to get vaccinated, the ministers confirmed that individuals entering the country from countries considered safe will not need to quarantine; in the previous days, health officials reportedly recommended that all inbound travelers self-isolate.

The list of countries under a travel ban, which Israelis cannot visit unless they obtain permission from the devoted governmental committee, already included

Uzbekistan, Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico, Spain, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.

Earlier in the day, Israel registered an increase in the number of patients in serious condition.

Some 75 patients were in serious condition on Thursday night. On Sunday there were 66, but the following day the number went down to 61 and slowly rose from there.

There were about 20 patients in serious condition around mid-June, with fewer than 200 active cases. Currently, the number of active cases is approaching 10,000.

Some 1,336 new cases were identified on Wednesday, and there were 1,406 on Tuesday and 1,381 on Monday, the Health Ministry reported.