Israel, which has controlled the spread of COVID-19 through rapid vaccination, has lifted the last remaining quarantine measure, the duty to wear an indoor mask.



The Israeli Ministry of Health announced that from today (15th) local time, the mandatory wearing of masks in indoor public places will be lifted.



However, the Ministry of Health explained that the duty to wear a mask will be maintained for those who are not vaccinated, those who are quarantined in Corona 19-related facilities, and passengers on airplanes who visit welfare institutions or health institutions where the elderly live and support facilities for the elderly.



In addition, the Ministry of Health said that it will separately issue specific guidelines on the obligations of health institutions to wear masks.



Due to the government's poor initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Israel exceeded 9% of the population of about 9.3 million, and more than 6,400 deaths occurred.



However, Israel has reversed the situation by importing Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines from December 19 last year and rapidly inoculating the public.



So far, more than 5.14 million people, more than 55% of the total population, have completed the second dose.



In addition, the proportion of the population estimated to have developed immunity, including those who recovered after being confirmed with COVID-19, is over 64%.



As a result of early vaccination, the number of new daily infections, which once exceeded 10,000 in mid-January, has continued to decrease, and has recently been below 10.



On the 13th, there were 4 new confirmed cases.



The ratio of confirmed cases to the total number of tests is in the range of 0.1 to 0.2%.



Based on these achievements, Israel launched its first COVID-19 lockdown exit strategy on February 7, and since then has been easing quarantine measures in stages.



In particular, Israel lifted the obligation to wear an outdoor mask on April 18 as the infection index improved even while most economic activities were normalized, and social distancing measures have been completely lifted from this month.



(Photo = Getty Images Korea)