According to the IDF's new evaluation, coronavirus will be staying with us until the end of 2021, and a working vaccine will reach consumers' shelves only in July 2021.
An unnamed official with the report's details, told N12 that Israel's ability to overcome the pandemic is questionable. He explained that lockdowns and severing the chains of infections are solutions that have become irrelevant, as the numbers of new infections are too high and cabinet decisions are made from a political standpoint.
The official added that enforcement does not focus on areas with the highest morbidity rates, and the Israeli public can't be educated to behave differently.
The implication of this, according to the official, is that we may find ourselves in January dealing with thousands of new deaths every day and with a damaged economy. "This reality may follow us well into 2021."
The IDF's updated evaluation comes a few days after coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu defined the national objectives that need to be met before a gradual ending the nationwide lockdown is possible. These include fewer than 2,000 daily infections and an R factor of 0.8 - meaning that an infected person infects less than one other person on average.
Gamzu's objectives were met with criticism however, with one cabinet member stating that "these goals are too ambitious, in that rate we'll remain in lockdown until November."