no longer requires people to wear masks outdoor,After fully vaccinating a majority of its population, Israel

 With more than half of its population fully vaccinated, Israel on Sunday dropped its outdoor mask mandate.

Masks are still required in indoor public spaces, like stores, malls, and places of worship. But the change was a stark signal of the country's progress against the pandemic, powered by one of the earliest and fastest vaccine rollouts.

The outdoor masking rule was in place continuously for about a year.

On Monday, the country also took another step toward a pre-COVID-19 reality, fully reopening schools for the first time since September.

According to reports, 60% of Israel's population has had a first dose of the vaccine, while 56% have had both. The country's population is about 9 million.

About 81% of Israelis older than 16 have been fully vaccinated, media reports People under the age of 16 are not eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Israel has overseen a rapid rollout, and the effects appear to be showing. Insider reported this was possible through the country securing a large number of doses early and helped by the country's centralized, data-driven healthcare system. 

A flexible approach to distributing leftover doses also reduced waste and sped things up.

Daily new cases reached a peak in January and tailed off to the low hundreds in April, Johns Hopkins University's data showed.

"We are leading the world right now when it comes to emerging from the coronavirus," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to Reuters. "[But] we have still not finished with the coronavirus. It can return."

Israel started requiring people to wear masks outdoors in April last year, according to Haaretz. 

Despite a general mood of jubilation at the lifting of the mandate, some people are adjusting slowly and still opting to keep their masks on outdoors, Haaretz reported.