Health Minister Yaakov Litzman said on Tuesday at a conference that the government is considering placing restrictions on people who refuse to get vaccinated.

“There are groups who refuse to get vaccinated and we won’t allow this to become standard,” Litzman said. “The health system is the one that decides and that’s what will be. We’ll consider imposing penalties on anyone who refuses to get vaccinated. Right now, it’s too early to speak about this because there’s no Knesset but we definitely need to do something.”

Israel is presently experiencing an unprecedented flu season, with many fatalities and people hospitalized throughout Israel. “We’ve never seen such an aggressive and virulent flu,” the Health Ministry warned.

There have been 11 fatalities, nine of which were the result of swine flu complications, and over 100 people have been hospitalized to date, well before the height of the flu season at the end of January. In 2018, only 45 people were hospitalized due to flu by the end of the winter.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Kupot Cholim are running out of flu vaccines as Israelis are flocking to get vaccinated due to the Health Ministry’s warnings. As of last week, only 16% of the population was vaccinated, leaving about 7 million Israelis unvaccinated with only an estimated 150,000 vaccines left in the country.

Health Ministry officials said that due to the low vaccination rate, it did not expect such high demand and any extra vaccines would have had to be discarded.

Earlier on Tuesday, Litzman suggested to Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel begin producing its own vaccines to provide an answer to the increasing demands of the Israeli population.

“The flu vaccine is indisputably the most effective tool for dealing with the seasonal flu,” Litzman wrote. “The global vaccine industry is limited and centralized (there are individual manufactuers for each vaccine) and for this reason, a number of countries have chosen – following the 2009 flu pandemic (swine flu) – to establish their own vaccination plants.”

“In order to avoid facing a situation of a vaccine shortage, the Health Ministry has been taking various steps, including the economic evaluation of various alternatives. It was found that establishing a vaccine manufacturing plant with independent production of influenza vaccines is the preferred alternative for Israel. This would ensure functional independence and the ability to fully meet the needs of large populations without depending on the multinational drug companies.”

On Erev Shabbos, a 9-year-old resident of Bnei Brak, an only child, was evacuated to Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer due to flu complications. His condition deteriorated in the hospital and he is currently unconscious and on a respirator. The boy’s relatives went to Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky who told them to add the name Yitzchak to the boy’s name. His name for davening is Avraham Yitzchak ben Gila.

There have been 11 fatalities, nine of which were the result of swine flu complications, and over 100 people have been hospitalized to date, well before the height of the flu season at the end of January. In 2018, only 45 people were hospitalized due to flu by the end of the winter.