The Finance Ministry announced on Thursday that it will compensate vaccinated parents forced to stay home to monitor their COVID-19 positive children, following a major outbreak in Israel earlier this week, according to a press release from the ministry.
Parents will be able to submit applications to the Finance Ministry, which has extended the deadline for submission for another 30 days, while compensation itself will continue until September 2021.
Following the announcement, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said that "for the first time, vaccinated parents who were in solitary confinement with their children will be addressed and payment will be made retroactively from January 2021. Providing a business safety net is critical. We will do everything we can to prevent businesses from financially harming their employees."
As part of the compensation, parents will continue receiving wages while the employer will also receive financial support due to the absence of the employee.
According to the Health Ministry's stipulations, parents will be entitled to compensation for a maximum of 10 days, the period by which their children are in isolation. A parent that has not been vaccinated will only be entitled to 50% of their wage, compared to vaccinated employees.
Parents may also receive compensation retroactively if they were forced to stay home with their children from January 2021 onwards.