Israel began its third coronavirus lockdown Sunday evening, as the country ranked first in the world in the number of vaccinations per capita.
Citizens are required to stay within a 1,000 meter (0.6 miles) distance from their homes, unless under special circumstances such as medical care of exercising.
This marks the third lockdown since the outbreak began in March. However, this time schools will continue to be open. At first, only grades one through four and grades 11 and 12 were allowed to continue, but following a backlash from the Knesset education committee, grades five through ten will only be open.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night hailed that the country’s “world record” vaccination drive with a goal of 150,000 shots administered per day.
“This is fantastic, such a magnitude is a world record,” the prime minister said.
He went onto say that within 30 days after reaching that pace the country would have have vaccinated 4.5 million citizens.
“Since everyone needs two injections, after one month we will have vaccinated 2.25 million Israeli citizens. There is nothing like this in the world,” he said.
Netanyahu was the first Israeli to receive a vaccine last Saturday night on live TV.
According to a graph published by Our World in Data, as of Sunday Israel came in first place according to the number of vaccination doses per capita.
Bahrain came in second while the UK, U.S. and Russia took third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Netanyahu’s vaccination drive comes after the 23rd Knesset dissolved last Tuesday over a failure by the unity government’s parties to meet a budget deadline, triggering the fourth round of elections in two years.