Israel has succeeded in fighting the second wave of coronavirus, but is now worried that its citizens will refuse further restrictions.

After recording the world’s worst per capita rate of new coronavirus infections, Israel has had some success with its second blockade.

However, despite the decline in new cases, there are concerns about how long people will adhere to the restrictions.

The government began “gradual” relaxation of coronavirus restrictions after the number of new daily cases decreased from a peak of 9,013 to less than 2,000. However, the number of tests has also decreased dramatically.

According to epidemiologists, the number of serious cases has decreased from 926 to about 600 since the blockade began on September 18.

However, they still estimate that another 400 to 500 people will die of the virus by late November.

The Israeli government has found that compliance with the second blockade is much lower than that of the first blockade, and in some cases rebellious.

“What we lack most is cooperation,” said Ronnie Gum’s, national coordinator of the Coronavirus Project.

The second national blockade coincided with a Jewish holiday in mid-September, and government officials publicly opposed it, promising business owners not to comply with the closure.

Anti-government protests continued during blockades in many parts of the country at mass rallies in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

As a result of this resistance, the Israeli coronavirus cabinet has tasked itself with finding ways to maintain compliance with the remaining measures to prevent the outbreak of infection again.

What do you do when people don’t want to obey?

The big problem is the impatient and opposite nature of the Israelis, says Professor Orly Manor, a statistician and chairman of the Israeli National Institute of Health Policy.

“We’re good at sprints, we’re not good at marathons … and again, we’re not that obedient,” she told ABC.

There is also the fear that some of the worst infected communities, the ultra-Orthodox Jews, are avoiding testing.

The claims of some ultra-Orthodox denominations of violating blockade rules and violating poverty, large families, and crowded living conditions during Jewish holidays are common to the community. Population that left a per capita infection rate five times that of.

Some people seek treatment from a volunteer group instead of going to the hospital. One of Jerusalem’s toughest ultra-Orthodox suburbs is treating up to 2,000 patients who are not registered with health authorities.

The senior rabbi has ordered many religious schools apart from Israel’s mainstream system to reopen illegally this week.

Public health officials are concerned, especially as seminaries for young ultra-Orthodox men were an important vector of pre-blockade infections.

“I don’t think they’ve reached herd immunity, so I think we’ll see another surge,” said an epidemiologist and professor at the Brown School of Public Health at the Hebrew University of Ronit Calderon Margarit.

People “lost trust” because the communication of instructions was not clear

The government struggled to stop protests nationwide during the blockade, people protested the coronavirus rules and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign allegations of corruption.

In a recent study by an independent think tank, the Israeli Democratic Institute found that more than half of the population (about 55%) believed that the recent blockade had been implemented for political reasons.

“People have lost credibility because of unclear communication of instructions. It does not necessarily make sense that it is based on epidemiological sensations or data,” said Professor Calderon Margarit.

But there were some successes. The high rate in the ultra-Orthodox community was in contrast to the decline in Palestine’s Israeli region.

Even in cities with a majority of the Arab population, infection rates were high in early September, driven by a summer joint wedding, but local authorities said community-led campaigns educated residents, improved compliance and cases. He said he had dramatically reduced the number.

The bigger challenge is to ensure that these campaign messages reach everyone.

Professor Calderon-Margalit points to a prominent example of a politician who broke the rules of the coronavirus himself.

“Our leaders really lack being role models,” she said.