by Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman
149 in serious condition, 117 intubated * Israel loses 37-year-old to the disease
It’s the holiday of freedom and the State of Israel is locked down.
The
government approved additional restrictions on Tuesday that will keep
Israelis at home during Passover, as the number of coronavirus victims
climbed to more than 9,000 and a 37-year-old man became Israel’s
youngest COVID-19 victim.
Until April 10, there will be no public
transportation, only cabs. Israelis cannot travel more than 100 meters
from home, including to walk their dogs. The only exceptions are that
divorced parents can transport their children and people can still go
out to help in the case of emergencies.
While
food stores will remain open, and on Wednesday morning Israelis can
shop for food in their own neighborhoods, beginning at 3 p.m. Wednesday,
with few exceptions, they are asked not to travel or shop at all.
Jerusalem
will be divided into seven districts and traffic between them will be
restricted, unless there is an essential need. Some 45 roadblocks have
been erected across the country and Police are enforcing these
regulations, empowered to prevent travel and ask people to supply ID and
information about their comings and goings.
The
IDF said that despite the new government regulations, there will be
unlimited military traffic in cities which are not under complete
lockdown, and parents of soldiers will be able to pick them up. The
military said that it is allowing some soldiers to leave their bases for
the Passover holiday, allowing them to spend it with their family.
The
new restrictions hit as the death toll in Israel climbed to 65,
including the country’s youngest victim, a 37-year-old from central
Israel. Suffering from multiple preexisting condition, he was being
treated at Hasharon Hospital.
Of those infected, some 149 are in critical condition, including
117 who are intubated. The Health Ministry tested 7,250 people on
Monday, but according to the National Security Council, only 1,600 on
Tuesday.
In
addition to the travel restrictions, the Health Ministry has formalized
that all people over the age of six must wear masks in public beginning
on Sunday.
Overnight,
the Knesset passed in its final reading approximately NIS 16 billion of
additional funding that will be available for the National Insurance
Institute. A further NIS 40b. will be available to fulfill additional
promises made in the government’s financial aid package published last
week, including an NIS 8b. loan fund for small businesses. In addition,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that soldiers, seniors,
people with disabilities and parents of young children would receive NIS
500 grants for Passover.
On
Tuesday, Health Ministry director-director Moshe Bar Siman Tov told
Channel 12 that when the number of new infections becomes “dozens per
day” restrictions can begin to lighten.
Nonetheless,
a report published by the Knesset coronavirus task force on Tuesday
heavily criticized the state's management of the coronavirus crisis,
rolling out a set of recommendations to help Israelis emerge from the
current challenge.
Among
the commission’s recommendations, which are divided into categories -
policy, health system functionality, second-wave preparation, exit
strategy, local authorities and economy - are making changes to the
country’s testing policies and establishing a national crisis-management
body.
The
commission met for nearly 29 hours with 73 relevant leaders from across
the health and other related fields. Its recommendations were approved
by a vote of six to zero.
The
report highlighted a number of gaps in the current management of the
crisis, including that it was unclear if the Health Ministry’s decision
to limit the number of coronavirus screenings conducted per day was due
to a medical philosophy or because “there were simply not enough test
kits and our laboratories were not prepared."
The
report noted that there were contradictory statements made regarding
the effectiveness of the use of masks and questioned whether this was
because there were not sufficient masks in Israel to require a
country-wide protection policy.
It
pointed out that the Health Ministry admitted it was aware of the
coronavirus threat as early as January 20, but made no efforts to
procure additional ventilators until mid March and that no new
ventilators entered the country as of March 26.
It
further detailed that the focus on the number of ventilators is
misleading, since the machine alone cannot save a patient, but a team of
qualified medical professionals are needed - and the country lacks
trained staff.
Moreover,
the report showed that decisions were made in a limited forum - by the
prime minister, Health and Finance ministry officials - and that despite
the existence of well-known emergency protocols being established by
the Defense Ministry, no similar protocol was established to manage
coronavirus.
The report recommended that a crisis-management body be established as soon as possible.
In
the realm of testing, the commission said testing should not be limited
to people who are experiencing disease symptoms, as is currently the
case - except for a relatively small number of monitoring tests. Rather,
it said, three main groups should be checked regularly, in cycles of
one to several days and with a fixed percentage of tests, for at-risk
groups: populations at risk (elderly people, people with background
illnesses); medical staff; and staff dealing with at-risk populations.
The
commission recommended a differential isolation policy that would not
only cover populations at risk, but also geographical risk centers, such
as the city of Bnei Brak and other communities, where there are
unusually large outbreaks of the disease.
“The
peripheral damage from a complete halt to any activity unrelated to
coronavirus may eventually be worse even than the plague itself,” the
report stated. “The commission believes that the needs of the economy
and society require, immediately after Passover, changes in the
prohibitions against movement and work… Even in the absence of an
overall ‘exit strategy,’ continuing the current policy could bring us to
a situation where the hard and dead numbers will remain low on a
world-class level, but the damage to the economy and society will be
irreparable, leading in the long run to even loss of life.”
At the same time, Israel must prepare for a second wave of infection as soon as possible, according to the report. The commission's research noted that it is expected that even if coronavirus begins to spread less during the summer months, it is expected to come back in full force next winter.
Anna Ahronheim contributed to this report.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman
Source: https://www.jpost.com/HEALTH-SCIENCE/Coronavirus-closure-could-last-past-Passover-reports-623856
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