About 50 employees of Israel Railways have contracted the coronavirus and about 300 employees are in quarantine, Kan News reported on Thursday.

The large number of employees who are ill or in quarantine is causing a considerable amount of difficulty for the company to keep the trains running on time.

“If the current rate of infection continues, the company will soon be unable to function and it is possible the government will force us to cease operations,” Israel Railways wrote in a letter to its employees on Thursday.

Many employees who contracted the virus are in positions that are essential for the proper functioning of the trains, such as conductors, managers and maintenance workers.

Israel’s trains resumed operation about a month ago after a three-month hiatus but the number of passengers, currently about 65,000 a day, has fallen significantly since before the pandemic, when about 300,000 passengers rode the trains every day.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)