I have seen a few articles written about how to blow shofar this year on Rosh Hashana, while taking precautions to not potentially spread the CoronaVirus. The articles dealt with the possibility of covering the opening of the shofar with a mask to prevent droplets from the shofar blower spreading around the shul - would it be considered a chatzitza or not, would it be a distortion of the sound of the shofar or not?
To that end, it must be pointed out that this year with Rosh Hashana on Shabbos and Sunday, the first day we don't blow shofar at all, and the second day blowing will only be "drabanan".
In an attempt to arrange a way to have a shofar blowing, a d'oraisa shofar blowing, on the first day, a group of people who ascend Har Habayit have requested permission to ascend on Shabbos Rosh Hashana, the first day of Rosh Hashana, and to be allowed to blow shofar there. Normally Har Habayit is closed to Jews on Shabbos, and normally blowing shofar is not allowed, as any signs of Jewish worship are not allowed, so this would require special permission being granted.
In a letter sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they made the request and pointed out that Thhe police leadership has always claimed that they are prepared to enforce and carry out any orders issued for Har Habayit by the political leadership with no problems. In other words, don't claim the police are opposed because it might cause riots - if you tell the police to allow it, they claim they can keep control of the situation.
Being that ascending Har Habayit and blowing shofar on Shabbos Rosh Hashana is the only way and place to fulfill the mitzva d'oraisa this year, they requested permission to perform this mitzva.source: Srugim
While the request is important for the process, I don't think PM Netanyahu cares about the differences between being able to blow d'rabanan or d'oraisa, and I don't think this is an overly persuasive argument. But let's see what happens. It has been a strange enough year that anything could happen..
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