Gov’t orders severe limits as virus cases near 300
Cabinet to approve ‘digital tools’ to monitor potentially infected citizens
The government imposed severe limits on both the public and private sector on Monday evening, as the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus climbed to 298.
The public sector will operate according to an emergency framework, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, with all government and local authority workers placed on paid leave until the end of the Passover holiday, except for those deemed critical for continued operations. Private sector firms exceeding 10 employees will be required to reduce staff present in the workplace by 70%.
Netanyahu said the government will also approve the use of a range of “digital tools” to monitor the spread of the virus for an initial period of 30 days. Responding to privacy fears voiced in recent days regarding the implementation of technological measures previously used to fight terror, Netanyahu emphasized the importance of balancing human rights and the demands needed to manage the crisis.
“We are not locking people in their houses – this is not a total lockdown, and I hope we will not reach that,” Netanyahu said. “We have a more moderate increase in infection than in other countries, we are doing everything to remain in control.”
While localized lockdowns may be implemented in specific areas facing severe outbreaks, Netanyahu said critical services – including supermarkets, pharmacies, banks and welfare institutions – will continue to operate as normal. Public transportation will also continue to operate according to regular schedules.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon hailed an agreement reached with union representatives, employers and industry organizations to ease financial struggles faced by businesses and self-employed workers. Measures will include increased eligibility for unemployment benefits and the deferral of payments, including VAT, municipality taxes and utility bills.
Kahlon also declared his intention to inject NIS 5 billion into the economy, in addition to a NIS 10b. package already announced, to assist small and medium-sized businesses. Details are likely to be announced in the coming days.
Speaking to Army Radio, Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman said authorities were already considering quarantining one town with a significant number of cases. Hebrew media reported that the location under discussion is the ultra-Orthodox town of Kiryat Ye’arim, also known as Telz-Stone, where eight cases have been confirmed to date and a quarter of the population (1,500 residents) are in isolation.
The announcements came as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Israel jumped to 298 – a spike of 98 people from the day before. Earlier, the Health Ministry accidentally announced an increase to 344 patients, but soon corrected itself. “There was a malfunction in the reporting system,” the ministry said, promising it would update the numbers soon.
Of the 298 people confirmed to be infected by the virus, 21 are medical staff. As of Monday evening, there were more than 50,000 people in isolation – among them, 2,600 medical personnel, including 862 doctors.
Three cases of medical personnel contracting COVID-19 have been confirmed in the past 24 hours. On Sunday night, a senior doctor at Ichilov Hospital was reported by Ynet to have contracted the virus. All of the patients in her unit – many of them senior citizens – had to be tested and transferred to another unit, and her staff was sent home to self-isolate. The next morning, an intern in the hospital’s urology department also tested positive for coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the deputy director-general of the Central Laboratory for Detecting Coronavirus of the Health Ministry at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer tested positive for COVID-19. The laboratory, which carried out approximately 480 tests on a daily basis, was shut down.
Following a request from the Health Ministry to Hadassah-University Medical Center, the Jerusalem hospital said it would aim to fill the gap by doubling or tripling its current rate of tests, calling on PhD students and other laboratory staff to boost their capabilities.
The Carmel Medical Center in Haifa also said its laboratories are now available to run approximately 100 coronavirus tests a day, and subsequently plans to increase its capability to 400 per day once additional equipment arrives from abroad. The laboratory at Emek Medical Center in Afula will also join the effort.
Anticipating an increase in confirmed cases, preparations are underway to convert several hotels into quarantine facilities for patients with mild symptoms. Dan Hotels said it was holding talks to rent three of 14 hotels owned by the luxury chain to the Defense Ministry for use as isolation centers for carriers of the virus.
Footage broadcasted by Channel 12 showed soldiers working outside Dan Panorama Tel Aviv, a hotel usually brimming with tourists and businesspeople at this time of year. The Dan Jerusalem Hotel will also host patients with mild symptoms.
National Economic Council Chairman Prof. Avi Simhon estimated that a full shutdown of the economy would likely cost the state at least NIS 50 billion. Speaking to Army Radio,
he added that it will be necessary for the government to “significantly increase” the fiscal deficit in order to compensate businesses and support the economy.
Meanwhile, on Monday afternoon, the Intelligence Subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held its first hearing on whether to approve Netanyahu’s request to allow the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) to use various advanced technological means to track the movements of persons infected with the coronavirus.
Committee chairman and top Blue and White official Gabi Ashkenazi indicated that he would demand rounds of hearings on the issue to understand it in-depth and would not serve as a rubber stamp.
Already on Monday, Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov, Public Services Health Ministry director Sigal Sadetsky and Deputy Attorney-General Raz Nizri all testified before the committee, whose proceedings are often not even announced.
Ashkenazi made several moves to ensure that his committee could proceed with the hearings even as the Knesset officially changed over to the 23rd from the 22nd.
In addition, as countries worldwide continue to restrict incoming and outgoing travel, the Consular Division of the Foreign Ministry encouraged Israeli citizens abroad to ensure that plans to return to the country remain feasible.
In a statement, the ministry called on nationals currently residing in Peru to follow instructions issued by local authorities after Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra ordered the closure of borders, including air and sea travel. •
disease than car accidents.
“If we would have occupancy rates like hospitals in other countries, we would be able to hospitalize people at first” before shutting down the country, Ben-David said.
Moreover, even if there had been enough beds, there also is not enough staff, he said. Israel is woefully understaffed when it comes to all medical professionals, the statistics show, but especially when it comes to nurses. According to Ben-David, Israel has nearly the lowest number of nurses per capita compared with other OECD countries and nearly the lowest number of nursing-school graduates.
And what about laboratories? Many more tests could be processed faster if labs were more fully staffed and could dedicate more hours.
What is even worse, said Zeev Feldman, chairman of the Organization of the State Employed Physicians of Israel and deputy president of the Israeli Medical Association, is that the country lacks protective gear needed by doctors and lab workers to ensure they do not become infected when treating patients or checking their polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening test.
On Monday, the deputy director-general of the Health Ministry’s central laboratory for detecting coronavirus at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer tested positive for COVID19. The lab was shut down. It had carried out approximately 480 tests on a daily basis.
In addition, two medical professionals at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv reportedly contracted the virus.
According to the Health Ministry, almost 2,600 medical professionals are in isolation, including 862 doctors. The chair of the residents’ organization Mirsham, Dr. Rey Biton, lamented Monday in a statement that “entire wards have been closed, vital medical teams have gone into quarantine, and our most valuable resources – doctors – are going to waste.”
She called on the Health Ministry to provide enough protective gear to medical professionals and to make it obligatory that they wear it when examining patients showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus. Those symptoms include fever, coughing and difficulty breathing.
Hospitals were running low on protective masks, Israeli Medical Association chairman Prof. Zion Hagay said. A large number of masks and protective suits had been stolen, he said.
Hagay said he had been in contact with the Health Ministry, which had assured him a large shipment of equipment from South Africa would be delivered to all hospitals soon.
Feldman said there are holes in the Health Ministry’s guidelines, which only deal with treating patients who are suspected of having the virus.
“The big unknown is the regular patients who come to the emergency room and complain of a headache or abdominal pain or trauma,” he said. “We
should assume that some of them are already contaminated with the virus, and we need to take precautions.”
Channel 12 reported that some hospital staff were cautioned to ration protective gear due to its deficit.
Ben-David reiterated that “all of these are things that you need to plan for years in advance, to plan for emergencies.”
“We left ourselves no degree of freedom if we have a major problem,” he said. “Now, it is exploding in our faces.”
Israel, however, is one of the world’s most nimble countries in dealing with crises on very short notice, and the Start-Up Nation is known for its out-ofthe-box solutions, Ben-David said. So the country likely will not crumble under the coronavirus.
Still, it should take this crisis as “a wake-up call for more serious strategic long-term policies that won’t require Israel to implement such severe measures in the future,” he said. •
and hope that better days are ahead. Israelis are great at that. We don’t like to admit that we don’t have the answers for every puzzle, and we definitely don’t like to confess that we’re scared.
But in the back of our minds, muzzled by the yihye b’seder mantra, we don’t really know if it will all be ok. Instead of putting on a brave face, maybe it’s time to embrace this new, alien reality and shout out from the confines of our shuttered house: I’m scared.
It might make you feel a little better. And at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future, when we emerge from the corona darkness, the fear will subside.
We’ll go back and populate the theaters and cafes and stadiums, rebuild the lives that were shattered, and hopefully be more aware and grateful that the life we’ve been given should never be taken for granted. •