Due to the twelve young women testing positive for the disease, another 125 students in the Israeli program at the school located in the Arnona neighborhood of southern  Jerusalem have gone into isolation. All of the students in the Israeli program have been sent home and are taking classes on video conference.

The outbreak began when one student was sent home due to having a mild cough last week. Even though she did not have a fever or other symptoms, she was asked to take a coronavirus test, which came back positive. Shortly thereafter, an assistant at the seminary tested positive for COVID-19. After they were sent home, ten more of the students, all asymptomatic, tested positive.

The seminary also includes dozens of students from overseas. However, due to the government-mandated-14-day-isolation period required for all students arriving from abroad, none of the foreign students came into contact with the Israeli students.

Israel expects about 16,000 yeshiva, seminary, and graduate students, to arrive from overseas this fall. In order to prevent such outbreaks from occurring, and containing them if and when they do, many yeshivas and seminaries have put strict and comprehensive hygiene measures in place and split their student populations into “capsules” so that students will only come into contact with a limited number of people.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)