An emergency meeting was held on Sunday afternoon in the Prime Minister’s Office with the participation of the ministers of health, finance, foreign affairs and justice and medical representatives on how to minimize the risk of the coronavirus spreading to Israel.

During the meeting, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed that any Chabad Shliach who wants to leave China will be assisted by Israel, with Israel organizing the planes and bearing the financial expenses, COL reported.

Rabbi Dovi Henig, a Chabad shaliach in Chengdu, China was on his way home to Israel with a stopover in Germany but Lufthansa Airlines refused to allow his wife on the plane to Israel since she’s an American citizen. A source told COL that since Israel announced that they’re not allowing in any foreign nationals who have been in China in the last few weeks, Lufthansa apparently fears that they’ll be forced to fly the family back to Germany.

Meanwhile, the family bought tickets to the United States. However, it’s unclear whether the US will allow them in since, like Australia, Japan and Singapore, the US announced that they won’t allow anyone who has been in China for the last two weeks to enter the country.

The source added that it may have been possible to arrange the family’s entrance into Israel but they already bought tickets to the States. “They spoke with the Consul and they hope everything will be all right.”

Following the meeting, the Prime Minister’s Office stated that: “We have just concluded an in-depth and detailed discussion with all Israeli government officials on how to deal with the outbreak of the coronavirus.

PM Netanyahu: I am making it clear that the State of Israel, as of now, has moved ahead of the world on many things, also in dealing with this issue and we intend to do so on another matter. pic.twitter.com/ZjrwtCxuic

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) February 2, 2020

“Our foremost goal is to postpone the arrival of the virus to Israel. I say ‘postpone’ because it is unavoidable. We will then identify, treat, isolate and deal with those infected.

“I must say that this is unavoidable even though the Chinese government has made great efforts here. On behalf of the government of Israel, I would like to express appreciation for China’s effort to prevent the spread of this virus; however, the spread is apparently inevitable in the sense that we will need to deal with it forthwith.

“Because we estimate that the virus will arrive, we will also deal with the procedures designed to isolate those who have been infected and treat them. This treatment will include isolation for two weeks at home. We will explain to Israelis exactly what is required of them.

“We have closed land crossings, seaports and airports to arrivals from China; this is temporary. We are also updating the Palestinian Authority on all preventive steps and public health measures that they must take into account here as well.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)