The Israeli Health Ministry has reimposed a requirement for masks to be worn in enclosed public places, following a surge in Covid-19 cases since the rule was dropped 10 days ago.

The head of Israel’s pandemic response taskforce, Nachman Ash, told public radio the requirement came after four straight days of more than 100 new cases per day, with 227 cases confirmed yesterday. “We are seeing a doubling every few days,” Ash said. “Another thing that is worrying is that the infections are spreading. If we had two cities where most of the infections were, we have more cities where the numbers are rising and communities where the cases are going up.” He said.

He also said the rise in cases was likely due to the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus, first identified in India. The country has also seen one of the world’s most rapid and comprehensive vaccine rollouts. Some 5.2 million people in the country have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

Israel became a pioneer in Covid vaccinations after the then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu obtained millions of doses from Pfizer in exchange for sharing health data on their impact.

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