It’s possible that Israel’s citizens will be placed in a full national lockdown for at least a month as the coronavirus infection rate continues to soar, according to Israeli media reports based on leaks from a Zoom meeting of senior Health Ministry and hospital directors on Tuesday night.

During the meeting with coronavirus czar Prof. Ronni Gamzu, Health Ministry officials, and the directors of Israel’s largest hospitals, Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Chezy Levy said that if a lockdown is implemented, it will be for at least a month, saying that two or three weeks will not be sufficient to curb the infection rate. It was also said at the meeting that according to the current infection rate, it will take at least 90 days to reach the desired goal of no more than 400 virus infections per day.

Hospital directors spoke about the overwhelming conditions in their coronavirus wards as more and more virus patients fill the beds as well as the shortage of staff in all hospitals. The directors said that their medical personnel are collapsing under the strain and that there’s no alternative but to implement a lockdown. Israel’s largest hospital, Sheba in Ramat Gan, is now sending coronavirus patients to other hospitals due to its overflowing coronavirus wards.

Furthermore, doctors and hospital directors are saying that with the onset of the winter, the health system will collapse.

Health Ministry officials were shocked by the descriptions, Ynet reported.

“It’s very worrying,” one hospital official told Ynet. “There doesn’t seem to be effective steps to decrease deaths and serious cases, and the capability of the health care system to adequately treat patients is already almost at a breaking point.

“Medical staff is suffering severe exhaustion, and every hospital is lacking dozens or hundreds of staff members due to quarantine.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)