Tel Aviv, Sep 7 (IANS): A special Israeli ministerial committee has decided to impose a night curfew in 40 cities and towns with high Covid-19 morbidity starting from Monday, according to a government statement.

The curfew will be in force from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., Xinhua news agency quoted the joint statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Health as saying on Sunday.

During these hours, only essential businesses will be allowed to open and movement will be perimitted within 500 metres from residences.

In these cities and towns, gatherings of more than 10 people indoors and 20 outdoors will be banned, while schools and kindergartens will remain closed.

The 40 cities and towns were announced "red" as part of a government "traffic light" program, which has classified all cities and towns in Israel into red, orange, yellow and green according to morbidity level.

Meanwhile, the country reported 1,708 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, which took the overall caseload to to 130,644.

The death toll increased to 1,019 with 12 new fatalities, while the number of patients in serious condition rose from 439 to 453, out of 922 patients currently hospitalized.

The number of recoveries reached 102,477 with 996 new ones.