Doctor: ‘Leave phone at home, avoid quarantine’
Prof. Ruti Shako Levi, a doctor at Soroka-University Medical Center and head of the Israeli Pathologists Union, said on Saturday, ahead of the massive protest in Rabin Square, “Anyone coming tonight who is not interested in entering quarantine for two weeks tomorrow, do yourself a favor and leave your smartphone at home!”
The Health Ministry condemned Levi’s message on Sunday after she had shared it in a Facebook group titled “Changing the Leadership with Yesh Atid.”
The Health Ministry wrote a letter to the Public Ombudsman for Medical Professions, Dr. Boaz Lev, following the incident, emphasizing the importance of respecting coronavirus procedures and of following the quarantine rules. The ministry called out to anyone who may have listened to Levi and said they may pose a threat to others without knowing, as they cannot know if the people were in contact with people who tested positive the virus.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein contributed to the letter, stating that he is aware of the “great difficulty facing business owners due to the government’s decision to drastically downsize gatherings in restaurants and of closures of other sectors.”
The letter noted that Edelstein “completely relates to the business owners’ demands for appropriate compensation from the Finance Ministry due to the serious blow to their income.”
It was, nevertheless, emphasized that large gatherings, such as that at the protest, where dozens of thousands of demonstrators gathered, puts the public’s safety at risk: first the safety of the protesters, but also those around them.
The letter was signed by the health minister’s chief of staff, Kobi Tsoref.
The protest that Levi had spoken of was one of voiced anger at the failed policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz, policies which attempted to uphold the economy amid the coronavirus crisis.
“Even if you understand the pain and concern of the demonstrators, this is a dangerous crowd that I fear we will see the results of in the coming days in a rise in the number of people infected,” said Health Ministry director-general Chezy Levy to Ynet News. “It is clear that the demonstration was a large gathering with no adherence to the rules of preventing infection and the transmission of the virus from person to person.”