With the country under lockdown and the streets quiet except for the sounds of prayers – hopefully in capsules and according to regulations – the Health Ministry released the first set of coronavirus numbers on Saturday: 5,299 new diagnoses on Friday, plus another 1,616 since midnight on Saturday.
The death toll also increased over the holiday to 1,226.The coronavirus cabinet will convene on Monday after the holiday to discuss imposing more severe restrictions, given the high morbidity rate. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s warned in his latest speech to the public on Thursday that “there will be no choice but to tighten the restrictions,” but that before making any changes to the current outline, he will discuss them with his fellow ministers. “I will not just impose a closure on the State of Israel [but] I will not hesitate to impose restrictions if necessary,” the prime minister said.
With the holiday underway, five of the country’s biggest hospitals are reporting that their coronavirus wards are full or overcapacity: Hadassah Medical Center (129%), Shaare Zedek (110%), Samson Assuta Ashdod University Medical Center (107%), Sheba Medical Center (100%) and Hadassah Mount Scopus (100%).
Two hospitals also showed that their internal medicine wards were overcapacity: Holy Family Hospital in Nazareth (152%) and Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot (101%).
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Despite the holiday, the Health Ministry reported a large number of people being tested. On Friday, it showed, some 53,993 people were screened for the novel virus. Nearly 20,000 more had been tested Saturday by 4:30 p.m.
A drive-in coronavirus testing center was established in a Druze village in the Western Galilee, where it appeared that the infection rate was high. Despite the Jewish holiday, the facility was expected to run from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday to help identify sick patients and put them into isolation.
On the first day of the holiday, thousands of Israel Police remained deployed across the country, as well as hundreds of roadblocks. First reports indicated that despite loud protests by the public against the lockdown, people were staying at home.
Photos disseminated across social media and by the press showed empty streets.Police said they gave out 480 tickets to people not wearing masks in public spaces on Friday, 552 to people who broke the rule on traveling no more than one kilometer from home for a non-approved reason and only one to someone who gathering and refused to disperse at the request of police.
An exception to the quiet was at the Tel Aviv beach front, where hundreds of people turned out to protest against the closure.
Protesting is legal according to the rules of the lockdown. However, just before the start of the holiday, the Health Ministry and the government released an outline for protests, which include people wearing masks and rioting in capsules of 20.Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
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