With Most Adults Now Vaccinated, Israelis Are Busting Loose

JERUSALEM —Israel is partying like it's 2019. With most adults now vaccinated against the coronavirus and restrictions falling away — including the lifting this week of outdoor mask requirements — Israelis are joyously resuming routines that were disrupted more than a year ago and providing a glimpse of what the future could hold for other countries.

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Restaurants are booming outside and in. Concerts, bars and hotels are open to those who can flash their vaccine certificates. Classrooms are back to pre-covid capacity.

The rate of new infections has plummeted — from a peak of almost 10,000 a day to about 140 — and the number of serious coronavirus cases in many hospitals is down to single digits. The emergency covid-19 ward at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv resumed duty as a parking garage, and waiting rooms are suddenly flooded with non-covid patients coming for long-deferred treatments.

“It feels like it is going away for good this time,” said Sarah Goldstain, 24, who was standing with her bare face turned skyward at Jerusalem’s outdoor Mamilla Mall. “I can breathe. I have the sun on my face.”

Health officials are quick to note that the pandemic is not over. Infections continue to rage in countries around the world and next door in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Variants of the virus, some of which may be more resistant to vaccines, require strict surveillance. Read more at MSN