Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told other ministers on Monday that if Israel doesn’t take severe steps immediately, Israel will become “like Italy” soon.
Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed 8,308 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday morning, the highest number of new cases since September, with tests showing a positivity rate of 7.7%. There are currently 56,223 active virus cases, including 837 seriously ill patients, of whom 183 are ventilated – a number that now surpasses Israel’s red flag number of 800 seriously ill patients that its health system can adequately treat without undue strain.
A total of 98 fatalities were recorded in the past four days alone, an average of 25 deaths a day – raising the death toll to 3,448.
The Health Ministry held an emergency meeting on Tuesday morning during which Edelstein warned that if Israel doesn’t shut down, hundreds more will die, thousands will fall seriously ill and tens of thousands will become infected. The coronavirus cabinet is convening on Tuesday afternoon to make a decision on a hermetic closure, including the closing of all educational institutions and the reduced operation of workplaces.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is also urging the government to approve a strict lockdown, saying that no country in the world has succeeded in lowering infection rates by any other methods.
Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of the Health Ministry’s Public Health Division, said on Tuesday that the current morbidity and mortality data is more severe than the Health Ministry’s worst predictions.
Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Chezy Levy told Radio 103FM on Tuesday morning that the alarming rise in morbidity in Israel is due to the British virus variant.
Hospital directors continue to warn about the increasing number of seriously ill patients, saying that Israel is currently experiencing the worse wave of the pandemic.
The Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, announced on Tuesday that it can no longer accept any new coronavirus patients as its wards are full.
Prof. Pierre Singer, the head of the ICU at Beilinson Medical Center in Petach Tikvah, told Channel 13 that the hospitals are filling up with younger patients. “We have patients who are 48, 32, and 55. People are not absorbing the fact that the virus is dangerous and it’s not gone yet.”
Shomi Codish, the director of Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva, said there’s a “steep, sharp rise in the number of virus patients, a steeper rise than during the second wave. If this continues we’ll be in a very serious situation.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
While these political hacks “debate” the pros and cons of a short-term complete closure, the bodies are stacking up at the morgues and the Chevrah Kadishah are struggling to get their own members vaccinated. Political appointees seem unable to get beyond the likely public backlash against closures and just keep issuing “warnings” that are ignored by a large percentage of the population.
They had two previous lockdowns and they obviously didn’t work. So of course the government calls for a third. Brilliant.
And besides; an epidemic, no matter how bad, is no excuse for any government to become Nazi Germany, “for the citizens’ own safety”. I would urge anyone who can leave the North Korea of the Middle East (aka Israel) to so so while it’s still possible.