Coronavirus Case Surge: Israel set to impose second lockdown from September 18

Israel : Israel is set to impose a fresh nationwide lockdown from September 18 amid rising cases of coronavirus in the nation.

According to The Times of Israel, Israeli ministers on Sunday approved a three-week national lockdown as the country is reporting around 4,000 COVID-19 cases everyday. The new lockdown is set to begin over the upcoming Jewish holidays.

The lockdown is set to take place from 2 pm (local time) on September 18, which would be hours before the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Meanwhile, the Opposition party leaders have slammed the decision and tagged it as a sheer failure of current government.

As per news report, the people will not be allowed to travel to a distance greater than 500 meters from their residence; only purchase of essential items will be allowed during the lockdown.

Schools would remain shut, however, for business and public sector employees, strict limitations are in place, which the Prime Minister did not specify. Supermarkets, pharmacies and other essential businesses would be allowed to remain open and deliveries would be permitted.

Israel PM claimed that this tough time and he has no option but to impose a fresh lockdown in the country. However, he maintained that there is no big reason to worry as the economy of the nation is doing much better than most of the countries across the world.

"We were among the first to recognise the extent of the danger," the Israeli Prime Minister said, adding that the number of seriously-ill patients in the country and deaths per million are among the lowest in the world.

Israel had first imposed its lockdown in March which ran until early May. As per the latest updates by Johns Hopkins University, Israel has a total of 160,368 COVID-19 cases and 1,136 deaths.