Israel’s Health Ministry to Netanyahu: Shut Down Country for Week
Unnamed ministers who attended cabinet meeting say health minister demanding prime minister totally shut down Israel for a week to slow coronavirus infection rate.
By: Paul Shindman & Batya Jerenberg
Cabinet ministers who attended a meeting on the expansion of restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus said Monday that the Ministry of Health is calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to impose a full closure on Israel for at least one week, Channel 13 news reported.
The closure would prevent all citizens from leaving their homes except for the purpose of getting food and medicine, leaving only those designated as essential workers to be able to travel to their jobs.
According to the unnamed officials, the health ministry wants a total ban on all commercial and recreational activities except for food stores and pharmacies.
Earlier Monday health officials announced that 1,238 Israelis have been infected with the coronavirus so far and 75,000 are under two-week home isolation having been exposed to a carrier. Health officials have repeatedly warned that while most Israelis are complying with orders to stay at home and distance themselves from other people, too many were still mingling and helping to spread the disease.
Experts fear that the already soaring infection rate could see as many as 10,000 Israelis sick with the virus by the end of the month.
At the cabinet meeting, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said that more specific health rules were required including taking the temperature of every employee allowed to work during the curfew before they would be allowed into their place of work.
The Health Ministry launched Sunday a phone app that enables people to instantly be informed if they have unknowingly crossed paths with a coronavirus victim so that they can quarantine themselves.
Called HaMagen (“The Shield”), the app “allows you to get a notification (time and date) regarding your exposure to a confirmed patient” within the past 14 days, said the ministry in an accompanying statement.
The application, available both in the Google Play store and Apple’s AppStore, is updated in real-time with the history of every new patient’s whereabouts. This way, people do not have to keep studying the ministry’s website to see if they were in the vicinity of someone who has tested positive.
Upon opening the app, Health Ministry data is automatically cross-referenced with all the places people have been with their phones. If a match is made, the app “redirects the user to a link to the Health Ministry’s website, which will let you know what steps to take and allow you to report to the Health Ministry for home isolation.”
“With this we can stop the spread of the disease and protect those closest to us,” the ministry said.
For those fearing for their privacy, the ministry assured users that all the information about their whereabouts is stored solely on their phones. No information is given to the authorities about peoples’ movements; they are simply told that they have been near coronavirus victims and should go into self-isolation to ensure their health.
In this way the app works differently from the Shin Bet’s tracking of citizens’ phones. The internal security agency then informs the Health Ministry if someone had been within two meters of an ill person for more than 10 minutes so that he or she could be ordered into self-isolation. (World Israel News)
Read more at: worldisraelnews.com
