MichaelE wrote:
> HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
>> MichaelE wrote:
>>
>>>
http://www.jpost.com/israel-news/controversy-over-schools-opening-as-third-lockdown-begins-653426
>>>
>>>
>>> Third COVID-19 lockdown begins as controversy surrounds schools opening
>>> Edelstein: reopening all grades ‘will surely extend the closure’ •
>>> Teachers’ Union head: ‘we will not hesitate’ to sanction and strike
>>>
>>> By HANNAH BROWN DECEMBER 27, 2020 23:55...
>>> ...
>>>
>>> As Israel entered its third lockdown at 5 p.m. on the issue of education
>>> was front and center, as the government hammered out details of how
>>> schools would operate during the closure.
>>> The Knesset Education Committee, led by MK Ram Shefa, approved a change
>>> to the proposed lockdown regulations on Sunday morning that would allow
>>> students in grades 5-10 to continue learning at school.
>>> ...
>>> Last Thursday, the proposal called for those students to stay home while
>>> preschools and grades 1-4 and 11-12 would study from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.
>>> In response to an outcry from parents, municipal authorities and medical
>>> experts, the 1 p.m. deadline was changed later that day and it was
>>> decided that students would study a full day.
>>> The other main lockdown regulations that went into effect include the
>>> closure of retail businesses (except for groceries and pharmacies),
>>> except for deliveries.
>>> Businesses that do not receive customers will be allowed to remain open
>>> at 50% capacity or up to 10 employees. Gatherings will be limited to a
>>> maximum of 20 people outdoors or 10 people indoors. Individual sports
>>> activities will be allowed with no distance restrictions.
>>> The additional education revision approved Sunday will allow grades 5-10
>>> to operate a full day on their in-person learning days and to study on
>>> Zoom the rest of the time. The high schoolers will study in capsules and
>>> be allowed to interact with up to three other capsules; teachers will be
>>> able to instruct up to four capsules.
>>> The government has 48 hours from Sunday morning to submit a revised
>>> proposal for committee approval; until then, students will continue to
>>> study as usual.
>>> ...
>>> Parents’ groups welcomed the change, with the National Parents
>>> Organization saying in a statement prior to the decision: “We will not
>>> allow the members of the cabinet to continue abusing our children.”
>>> Parent advocates also highlighted a report by Elem, the organization
>>> that helps youth in distress, which said that there has been a 41%
>>> increase in adolescents experiencing serious mental health issues, as
>>> well as a sharp rise in substance abuse.
>>> BUT HEALTH Ministry officials were unhappy. Health Minister Yuli
>>> Edelstein said in response to the decision that “lockdown requires
>>> personal responsibility from each and every one of us. Unfortunately,
>>> not everyone acts responsibly. We saw this today in the Knesset’s
>>> Education Committee, in the unfortunate decision to resume schooling in
>>> all classrooms – something that will surely extend the closure.”
>>> Coronavirus commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash also disagreed strongly with
>>> this decision, saying in a briefing, “According to our recommendation,
>>> the education system should have been closed. The government’s decision
>>> was to allow the opening of kindergartens, grades 1-4 and 11-12. Any
>>> additional opening of classrooms means extending the duration of the
>>> closure and lowering its effectiveness.
>>> “In my opinion, it is right to make the closure as short as possible, to
>>> limit activities and not to conduct studies along with other age
>>> groups,” he said.
>>> At the same time, Education Minister Yoav Gallant instructed the
>>> director general of his ministry to give immediate notice to the
>>> directors of the districts and of the educational institutions,
>>> according to which the education system will continue to operate on
>>> Monday as it did on Sunday.
>>> But as of Sunday night, two factors threatened to derail the wishes of
>>> so many parents hoping their children would be able to study during the
>>> third lockdown.
>>> The first was uncertainty about pupils in red and orange cities and/or
>>> neighborhoods, according to the traffic-light plan of differential
>>> regulations depending on the morbidity rates in different areas.
>>> It was not clear which cities and neighborhoods were actually designated
>>> red and orange, since the traffic-light colors are supposed to be
>>> updated weekly on Thursday and the instructions derived from them are
>>> supposed to be valid for an entire week – but the colors were not
>>> updated last week. The last time the stoplight plan was calculated, more
>>> than half of the country (56%) was in red or orange areas.
>>> The other factor that might interfere with the plan was a labor dispute
>>> announced Sunday by the Teachers Union, in protest over teachers not
>>> being vaccinated yet.
>>> Yaffa Ben-David, secretary general of the Teachers Union, said Sunday
>>> that, “if there are no vaccines, there will be no studies – we will not
>>> agree to abandon the health of teaching staff... It is not possible for
>>> teaching staff to sacrifice themselves while all Israeli citizens are in
>>> lockdown and the state will not take care of their health protection.
>>> There is no reason not to vaccinate the teaching staff. “
>>> She noted that, “just a few days ago, the Health Ministry published a
>>> report according to which teaching staff are at a high risk of
>>> infection, at a rate of 50% relative to the general population.” She
>>> said that the union would not hesitate to take further steps. “If the
>>> problem is not resolved, we will not hesitate and take organizational
>>> measures – including sanctions and a strike.”
>>> IN HIS BRIEFING, Ash said that “within a few days” a decision would be
>>> made about when and how teachers would receive vaccinations. Edelstein
>>> announced Saturday night that he had instructed the director general of
>>> his ministry, Prof. Chezy Levy, to facilitate the vaccination of
>>> teaching staff.
>>> When the teachers do get vaccinated, it may be in a new vaccination
>>> center that the Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality is opening with Tel Aviv
>>> Sourasky Medical Center on January 4 at Rabin Square.
>>> The center will include an immunization tent with 20 stands that will be
>>> operated by the hospital’s nursing staff. Initially, the center will be
>>> open to residents of the city aged 60 and over, and later to all
>>> Israelis. When it opens, it will operate from Sunday through Thursday
>>>from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Fridays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
>>> The center is expected to vaccinate about 5,000 people a day in the
>>> first phase; later, that will increase. The vaccines will be given
>>> according to the guidelines set by the Health Ministry.
>>> “Since the outbreak of the coronavirus, the municipality has been
>>> mobilized to protect the health of the residents and to maintain a sense
>>> of routine alongside the virus,” said Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.
>>> “We have set up an epidemiological research center with over 100
>>> researchers, testing centers in the neighborhoods and now, a huge
>>> vaccination center in collaboration with Ichilov [hospital, Sourasky
>>> Medical Center in Tel Aviv],” he said. “We will continue to be at the
>>> forefront of the struggle for the benefit of the city’s residents and
>>> all the citizens of the country.”
>>> “As we enter the third closure, it is clear to all of us that our main
>>> goal right now is to vaccinate as many civilians as possible,” added
>>> Ichilov’s director and former coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu.
>>> “Through Mayor Ron Huldai, who immediately signed on with the Rabin
>>> Square vaccine center, we will continue to vaccinate thousands of people
>>> a day in the huge compound we are setting up with the municipality, all
>>> for one purpose – to finally get rid of coronavirus.”
>>> The system for scheduling appointments for the new complex is still
>>> being determined, and will be published later.
>>> “We’re completing the first week of coronavirus vaccinations with an
>>> unbelievable number of 280,000 vaccinated people,” Edelstein tweeted
>>> Sunday, adding that 71,000 people were vaccinated during the weekend
>>> alone. “We’ll continue to keep Israel safe,” he said. The Maccabi Health
>>> Fund reported Sunday that today 21,009 patients have been vaccinated.
>>> Since the beginning of the operation, 82,077 Maccabi members have been
>>> vaccinated. Tomorrow, it promised that the vaccine rate will increase
>>> even more.
>>> Since the beginning of the vaccination operation, 445,277 appointments
>>> have been set for 227,538 Maccabi members.
>>> ISRAEL IS once more first place worldwide in vaccine distribution,
>>> according to the tracker by Our World in Data. Edelstein, who is in the
>>> Likud Party, celebrated the accomplishment in a statement targeting
>>> unity government partner Blue and White, saying that, “While Blue and
>>> White practices populism and irresponsibility at the expense of public
>>> health, we’re working hard and have led Israel to the first place in the
>>> world regarding vaccine distribution and concern for public health.”
>>> While the hospital system has not collapsed, Jerusalem area hospitals
>>> are full. The Health Ministry on Sunday morning directed Magen David
>>> Adom (MDA), Israel’s national emergency medical service, to stop sending
>>> coronavirus patients to hospitals in Jerusalem in an attempt to reduce
>>> pressure on them. Patients from the Jerusalem area will be sent to
>>> hospitals in central Israel starting Sunday, including Sheba Medical
>>> Center, Beilinson Hospital and the Sourasky Medical Center.
>>> As of Sunday morning, the ministry reported that from midnight Friday to
>>> midnight Saturday, 2,636 cases were diagnosed and another 1,097 were
>>> added between midnight Saturday and 7 a.m. on Sunday. Six hundred and
>>> four patients were in serious condition and 136 were on ventilators.
>>> Since the pandemic began, 3,222 have died.
>>> While Edelstein expressed concern over the decision to keep all school
>>> grades open, he praised the teams in charge of the vaccinations
>>> countrywide, saying: “But I trust you, citizens of Israel. If we all act
>>> responsibly, we will see the great light at the end of the plague.”
>>> Blue and White said: “In all countries of the world, the education
>>> system also operates in a quarantine. Netanyahu, who has avoided dealing
>>> with hot spots and raising fines for narrow political reasons, continues
>>> to use corona for his political needs.
>>> “We will not be preached to by those who bring hundreds of thousands of
>>> families to poverty and have not passed a budget just to escape the law
>>> and harm the justice system.”
>>> Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
>>
>> The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in Israel & the rest of the
>> Mideast is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out
>> at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us are
>> unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order
>> to
http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call their
>> doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this
>> pandemic even in the worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations"
>> **and** others like the "cluster-5 mink mutations" (read more via
>> Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
>>
>> Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
>> and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
>>
>> So how are you ?
>
> I am wonderfully hungry!
Source:
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.bible.prophecy/c/4nEmXtwSSGY/m/34dhw1duBQAJ