Some 13,654 Israelis have been confirmed as infected with the coronavirus as of Monday morning, with 150 people in serious condition, according to the Health Ministry. A total of 3,872 patients have recovered to date.
One Israeli died overnight from COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, bringing Israel’s death toll to 173 on Monday morning.
After a few days in which the number of Israelis on ventilators had continued to drop, the numbers rose from 109 people on ventilators on Sunday to 114 people on Monday, a 4.6% increase.
In light of encouraging data, Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman, Interior Minister Arye Deri and Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov agreed to lighten restrictions on haredi (ultra-Orthodox) neighborhoods in Jerusalem and on the haredi city of Bnei Brak Sunday night.
The mayors of both cities committed to relocating at least half of their sick patients to “coronavirus hotels” by the end of the week.
Public transport in the city was ordered to remain closed except for an inner-city line. As of Monday morning, 2,349 people had been infected in Bnei Brak and 467 people had recovered, while in Jerusalem 2,672 people had been infected and 405 people had recovered.
Another decision due to be announced on Monday relates to whether bereaved families will be permitted to visit the graves of family members on Yom Hazikaron (April 28) – Remembrance Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism.
Amid fears that such visits could spread coronavirus, Yad Lebanim director Eli Ben-Shem told Army Radio that Defense Minister Naftali Bennett will recommend banning cemetery visits to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Ben-Shem said that Netanyahu, whose brother Yoni was killed in Operation Entebbe in 1976, should announce that he too will refrain from visiting his brother’s grave on Yom Hazikaron. The tense stand-off between the Israel Teachers’ Union and the government deepened on Monday, with union chairwoman Yaffa Ben-David doubling down on her rejection of “even one day” of schooling during the July vacation to catch up with missed studies. “Once schools closed, we were the first country that started learning remotely immediately,” Ben-David said in an interview with ynet. “Teachers don’t work 100%, they work 150%. Countries worldwide are paying [teachers’] full wages, and they are doing just a smidgen of what we are doing.” Responding to her comments, Finance Ministry budget-director Shaul Meridor said he had “no doubt” that teachers would be working in July, citing a “major gap” between teaching staff and those who represent them.
Infected Israelis in the Dan Panorama quarantine hotel in Tel Aviv may have managed to sneak in wine and marijuana recently, according to Mako news.
“The gang succeeded in bringing in wine in bottles of grape juice and even cheap army wine,” said D., one of the infected people at the hotel, to Mako. “We’re closed up in here all day and want to clear our minds. We need to drink alcohol.”
Some infected people were able to sneak in marijuana and had small drug parties in their rooms, the Mako report said. “We have our ways of sneaking it in, even though recently there’s a lot of strictures, especially on the young infected people who are responsible for the videos that were uploaded to social media,” said D.
Youth at the hotels also complained about haredim and Arabs who were brought to the hotel after being infected. “Suddenly its forbidden to take off your shirt or tan in order not to upset the haredim,” D said. “If someone breaks the rules, they ban us from the club, which has a projector and music systems. They’ve punished us before. The haredi and Arab people restrict the freedom we used to have throughout the hotel.”
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