Israel earmarks $3bn for future Covid outbreaks: PM

Tel Aviv, Oct 25 Israel will allocate 10 billion shekels ($3 billion) for dealing with future possible coronavirus outbreaks, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.

"We are currently exiting from the Delta wave and more outbreaks are expected also in Israel," Bennett said at the opening of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.

The new budget would be earmarked for an economic and medical safety net for future waves and the plan has been agreed by Bennett and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman as a one-time expansion of the budgetary framework for 2022, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Israel's model is based on keeping the country open and vaccinations, in addition to careful measures, and micro-managing the situation on a daily basis while taking all considerations, not just the epidemiological, into account," said the Prime Minister.

So far, some 42 per cent of the country's 9.3 million people have received the third Covid-19 vaccine dose, according to official figures issued by the Health Ministry.

As of Monday morning, Israel's overall Covid infection tally stood at 1,323,079, while the death toll increased to 8,049.