Chezy Levy: Protesters could catch coronavirus from one another

Although the anti-Netanyahu demonstrations are taking place outdoors, Health Ministry director-general Chezy Levy and coronavirus czar Prof. Ronni Gamzu both cautioned over the weekend that this does not make protesters immune from catching the coronavirus from one another.Speaking to KAN on Friday, Levy explained, “Although it is in an open area, on the other hand, hundreds – if not thousands – of people are close to each other, without masks. In some cases, they sing, shout, emit shards of saliva – that is exactly the way the virus is spread.”He told the radio station that there is no data on infections currently spread at these protests. However, he said that does not mean such statistics will not be forthcoming.“I do not know anyone who has been infected during the demonstrations,” he told KAN. “But that does not mean anything, because the morbidity due to the demonstrations will develop – if it develops – these days. If it were up to me, I would say that from a health point of view, the way the demonstrations are conducted, without keeping a distance and sometimes without full protection, is a way of catching it from one another.”Levy stressed that his remarks were in no way meant to justify or not justify holding demonstrations.Added Gamzu in a separate interview with N12: “It is, of course, a democratic right [to protest]. But I tell those same protestors: Their democratic right is to protest, their democratic responsibility is to keep the [Health Ministry] directives.”Last week, for instance, a confirmed coronavirus patient claimed to be at a Jerusalem protest the Saturday night before, Army Radio reported.