A sign announcing the closure of a playground in the northern Israeli city of Tzfat. The government ordered all bars, restaurants, malls and public entertainment areas to close in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, March 18, 2020. Photo: David Cohen/Flash90.

JNS.org – More than 100,000 Israelis have been laid off and are eligible for unemployment benefits as a result of the economic situation in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

In a seven-hour period on Wednesday, 28,000 new unemployed registered with the National Insurance Institute, the Israeli business daily Globes reported.

Daphna Aviram-Nitzan, director of the Center for Governance and the Economy at the Israel Democracy Institute, using data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, estimated that the number of those on unpaid leave could reach 600,000, which would cost the state around NIS 4 billion ($1,062 billion) per month in unemployment benefits.

“The high cost of putting hundreds of thousand of employees on unpaid vacation highlights the importance of the transition to working at least partially from home in the public and business sector,” Aviram-Nitzan told the Globes.