On Thursday, Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman issued a ban against all flights emanating from China from landing in Israel. The ban came in light of the rising death toll from the Coronavirus in the country. The ban is set to remain in place until further notice.
The directive was given at the end of a meeting arranged by the Health Ministry’s Emergency Department.
Litzman told Israeli reporters that “We shall not allow any flight in the near future from China to land in this country, not one.”
“After extensive consultations, we’ve made a number of decisions pertaining to the coronavirus. The numerous cases of the virus discovered in Europe require us to do everything we can to keep the Israeli people safe. We do not currently allow flights from China to Israel until further notice.”
“We shall examine tourists arriving in Israel from other countries as well and those who return from China will have to spend two weeks in solitary confinement at their homes – the period when they may still be contagious.”
Earlier on Thursday, following the lead of other airlines such as United, El Al announced that it will suspend flights between Israel and Beijing until March 25th.
So far, 213 people have reportedly died from the virus in China, with another 8,000 cases of the infection being reported.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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Before everybody panics, let’s get some perspective here. The death rate from this virus is around 2%, with most of the victims being elderly or having pre-existing medical conditions. This puts it in the same league as the flu. The symptoms are basically the same as the flu, and the vast majority of people infected make a complete recovery. So, calm down but keep washing your hands….
The real fear is that the virus could mutate and become more deadly while remaining just as contagious. This, B”H, hasn’t happened. Still, Mr. Litzman is following what is being generally done around the world. It would make just as much sense to stop flights from Europe, since they also have plenty of cases, but that would be too disruptive. So airport screening, for the time being.