There are a total of 730 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Wednesday morning in Bnei Brak, a jump of 159 in 24 hours. Much of the increased numbers can be attributed to increased testing due the testing stations established in the city on Tuesday.

Bnei Brak has not yet been placed in complete lockdown, and the National Security Council is reportedly against the move. However, the current heavy police presence in the city means the city is essentially under lockdown. Police officers are stationed at entrances to the city and only residents are allowed in and police forces and IDF soldiers are patrolling the streets, quickly putting a stop to any violations of regulations and handing out fines to violators.

Sixty-seven coronavirus patients were transferred from Bnei Brak to the Ramat Gan Stadium on Tuesday, a Channel 12 News report said. From there, the Home Front Command transferred the patients to Chareidi “coronavirus hotels.” Most of the patients were transferred to the Nir Etzion Hotel in the north.

Following the news that the wife of Peleg leader Rav Tzvi Friedman passed away overnight Tuesday, Israel Police arrived en masse to Bnei Brak to prevent a repeat of the crowd that gathered on Motzei Shabbos for the levaya of a Peleg leader. The Bnei Brak police command was subsequently slammed for failing to enforce Health Ministry regulations regarding crowds. The levya on Wednesday was attended by only ten people

“The tight police enforcement in Bnei Brak is unprecedented,” said Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan on Wednesday, adding however that “the situation in which patients and those who require quarantine but cannot maintain quarantine conditions in their homes, are still permitted to remain at home – is the cause of the spread of the coronavirus and the matter must be urgently addressed.”

“I will demand that the Health Ministry urgently issue orders requiring coronavirus patients and those who require quarantine to be transferred from the city to ‘coronavirus hotels.’ The continued spread of the virus must be stopped by every way possible for the sake of public health.”

“By the end of the week there will be over 1,000 cases in Bnei Brak,” a senior Health Ministry official told Channel 13 News. “We must remove the patients from the city – now. If it won’t happen, we’ll turn into Italy. This is a true alarm call.”

Senior Health Ministry official Boaz Lev told Ynet that he worried that the outbreak in Bnei Brak could spread across Israel. “It’s like a wildfire in a field of weeds,” he said.

The crackdown on Bnei Brak has been largely successful and videos and pictures of Bnei Brak show images of completely empty streets and shuttered businesses.

בני ברק ערב פסח נראית כמו ערב תשעה באב. צילום: יחיאל ועקנין pic.twitter.com/egcUmniMLK

— יענקי פרבר | Yanki Farber (@yankihebrew) April 1, 2020

There was a significant increase in the number of coronavirus cases as of Wednesday morning in Jerusalem and other Chareidi cities as well. As of Wednesday morning, Jerusalem has 781 cases, an increase of 20%, Modiin Ilit has 64 confirmed cases, an increase of 33%, Beit Shemesh has 95 cases, an increase of 25%, Beitar has 44 patients, an increase of 15.7% and Elad has 78 patients, an increase of 14.7%.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)