Schools have been temporarily closed and pupils sent into quarantine after several clusters of coronavirus infection were discovered across Israel. 

New cases were discovered at three Israeli schools in Jerusalem, Holon and Kiryat Yearim on Saturday night. 

According to Israel’s Channel 12, one student and one teacher were diagnosed at Jerusalem’s Hartman High School, with the result that the school will close until the end of the week and resume online lessons. The Hartman teacher also works at the Gymnasia Rehavia, which has been the epicentre of the new outbreak.

One seventh-grade student was diagnosed at Katzir High School in Holon and eight cases were found at a high school yeshiva in Kiryat Yearim.

In Kiryat Yearim, one third of the students tested for Covid-19 were found to be infected.

The Times of Israel reported that another school, Makif Gimel in Beersheba, sent teachers and all its seventh-graders, 150 students, into isolation after one student, whose mother caught the virus several days ago, started showing symptoms.

Despite the spike in infections in educational settings, the Israeli government decided in a meeting on Saturday night that there should be no sweeping school closures. 

Israel had 1,917 active cases as of Saturday night, with a majority under medical care at home and just 116 in hospital. Of those cases, 36 were in serious condition with 34 requiring mechanical ventilation. In Israel, 284 people have died of the virus.