Israel has rescinded the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors and fully reopened schools in the latest return to relative normality, boosted by a mass-vaccination campaign against the Covid-19 pandemic.

With almost 54 per cent of its 9.3 million population having received both shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, Israel has logged sharp drops in contagion and cases, according to a Reuters report.

The police-enforced wearing of protective masks outdoors, ordered a year ago, was scrapped from today, but the Health Ministry said the requirement still applied for indoor public spaces and urged citizens to keep masks to hand.

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