Health Ministry deputy D-G under investigation
Billionaire Teddy Sagi received quarantine exemption from Itamar Grotto after request was first denied
Senior Health Ministry officials have called on deputy director-general Itamar Grotto to resign from his position following a report that he granted a quarantine exemption to Cypriot-Israeli tycoon Teddy Sagi last week.
According to the Hebrew website N12, the billionaire, who owns the gambling company Palytech, reportedly arrived in the country last week on his private jet from Cyprus. Instead of entering a 14-day period of mandatory isolation, Sagi attended a bar mitzvah party at the home of Israeli entrepreneur Yitzhak Toledano.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein summoned Grotto for a disciplinary hearing, vowing to “examine the issue with all disciplinary measures at his disposal,” the Health Ministry’s spokesperson said.
“Especially at a time when there are great efforts to explain the importance of keeping the recommendations to the public and when we call for hardening their enforcement, there simply cannot be quarantine exemptions that would put the public at risk,” Edelstein said.
“This is a severe violation of public trust and a serious mistake in professional discretion,” he added. “In such cases, I will not act leniently.”
Sagi received an exemption from Grotto after his request was denied by outgoing Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov, N12 reported.
Bar Siman Tov responded to the news saying that he wanted to find out whether the exemption could indeed be granted to people returning from abroad and if there had been similar cases in the past. He called on his deputy to respond with a “satisfactory explanation.”
Sources in the Health Ministry said they believe Grotto has handed out such approvals in the past and would have continued if not for the media report.
However, the Hebrew website Ynet, which said it had obtained the email in which Grotto approved the exemption, reported that Sagi told Grotto he had already had the novel coronavirus two months prior and had recovered, including submitting a copy of his antibody test. Sagi also said he took a coronavirus test days before his flight and it was negative.
It is unclear why Sagi would reach out to Grotto and not Dr. Asher Salmon, who heads the Department of International Relations for the Health Ministry.
The Movement for Quality Government in Israel responded to the report, calling Grotto’s behavior a “grave moral failure,” adding that “public health [was] jeopardized by those meant to protect it.”
Grotto is currently the highest-level medical professional at the Health Ministry. Minister Yuli Edelstein is not a doctor and neither is Bar Siman Tov.