WarSclerotic

Source: Israel faces full lockdown as coronavirus rate mounts to 200-300 a day – DEBKAfile

Source: Israel sees 371-case spike in confirmed coronavirus cases in a single day | The Times of Israel

Total of 1,442 patients, including 29 in serious condition, says Health Ministry; 41 of those diagnosed have recovered

A man wearing protective clothes in downtown Jerusalem on March 20, 2020. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

The number of diagnosed cases of the deadly coronavirus in Israel took another leap Monday, reaching 1,442, an increase of 371 since the day before.

Of those with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, 29 are in serious condition and being treated on ventilators, the Health Ministry said Monday evening.

The increase of 371 appeared to be the biggest single-day jump of confirmed cases of the disease, despite increasingly strict measures to limit public life in the country. One person has died of the disease.

There are 40 patients considered moderately ill with the disease and another 1,331 with mild symptoms, the ministry figures showed. So far 41 people have recovered from the disease which causes fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

There are 346 patients being treated at hospitals around the country and another 540 receiving treatment at home.

The rapid increase in diagnosed cases comes as Israel boosts its testing for the disease.

An Israeli woman wearing a face mask for fear of the coronavirus at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem, March 22, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The Health Ministry said Monday morning it had tested 3,230 people over the 24 hours previously, having last week ramped up testing to around 2,000 people a day after complaints over the slow pace of the checks.

Israel is reportedly set to announce drastic new restrictions on public movement it hopes will help stanch the spread of the virus, though policy experts expect any effect to only be seen in 10 days or more.

Israelis visit the beach in Tel Aviv despite government orders to avoid public gatherings due to the spread of the new coronavirus, March 21, 2020. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with officials from the Health and Finance ministries as well as other government departments to review implementation of further isolation orders that Hebrew media reported would include a complete shut down of the public transportation system and limiting citizens to straying no further than a couple of hundred meters from their homes, unless they are traveling to or from work or buying essential items. All stores will also be shut, aside from groceries and pharmacies, and police powers to enforce the measures will be ratcheted up.

The discussion about the restrictions, which will reportedly be announced by Tuesday if not earlier, came following a phone call between Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman-Tov and Netanyahu in which the former said that measures already taken were not curbing the spread of the disease, Channel 12 television reported.

Israeli firefighter wearing protective clothes disinfects the entrance of the emergency of Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem on March 22, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Bar Siman-Tov reportedly told Netanyahu that the rate at which cases was increasing is “worrying, it is like the Italian rate.” Italy has seen a massive outbreak of the virus with the highest number of known fatalities in the world at over 6,000 deaths so far.

The Health Ministry has already ordered the public to stay indoors, only venturing out if necessary and banned gatherings of more than 10 people. Universities, schools, kindergartens, and leisure sites have all been closed.

Israel’s first fatality from the virus, 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even, was buried overnight Saturday in a funeral service that was capped at 20 mourners. All present were required to stand at a two-meter (6.5 ft) distance from one another.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

The report showed Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium now stands at more than five times the limit fixed under the accord.

https://www.france24.com/en/20200303-iaea-chief-demands-clarifications-on-iran-s-nuclear-programme

The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog on Tuesday sounded the alarm at Iran’s cooperation with the agency and demanded “clarifications” over an undeclared site in Tehran where uranium particles were found late last year.

It comes on the same day as the IAEA issued two reports, one on Iran’s current nuclear programme and the other detailing its denial of access to two sites the agency wanted to visit.

Rafael Grossi, the new head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who was in Paris to meet President Emmanuel Macron, told AFP: “Iran must decide to cooperate in a clearer manner with the agency to give the necessary clarifications.”

“That worries me,” Grossi added.

The IAEA has for months been pressing Tehran for information about the kind of activities being carried out at the undeclared site where the uranium particles were found.

While the IAEA has not identified the site in question, diplomatic sources told AFP the agency asked Iran about a site in the Turquzabad district of Tehran, where Israel has alleged secret atomic activity in the past.

In addition, according to a report issued by the IAEA on Tuesday, “the Agency identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three locations in Iran”.

At one of them the report said the IAEA had from early July 2019 observed “activities… consistent with effort to sanitize part of the location”.

A diplomatic source said that the three locations were separate to Turquzabad.

The source also said that the agency’s queries were thought to relate to Iran’s historic nuclear activities and not to its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The IAEA report says the agency first raised questions about the sites last year and that Iran refused access to two of them that the agency wished to visit in late January.

Iran then sent the IAEA a letter saying it did “not recognize any allegation on past activities and does not consider itself obliged to respond to such allegations”.

– Deal in danger –

The second report from the agency detailed Iran’s current breaches of several parts of a landmark 2015 international deal on scaling back its nuclear programme.

The report showed Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium now stands at more than five times the limit fixed under the accord.

It said that as of February 19, 2020 the Iranian stockpile stood at the equivalent of 1,510 kilogrammes, as opposed to the 300 kg limit set under the agreement.

Some experts consider this amount to provide sufficient material to produce a nuclear weapon, depending on its exact level of purity.

However, it would still need several more steps, including further enrichment, to make it suitable for use in a weapon.

The report says that Iran has not been enriching uranium above 4.5 percent.

An enrichment level of around 90 percent would be needed for weapons use.

Richard Nephew, a former lead US sanctions expert during the negotiations for the 2015 deal, pointed out that while the latest figures were “a problem (that)… needs to be addressed”, Iran’s uranium stockpile remains a fraction of what it was before the deal actually came into force.

“This remains not yet a crisis and we have time to fix it diplomatically, if anyone in Washington or Tehran is still so inclined,” he said on Twitter.

The 2015 deal has been hanging by a thread since the US withdrew from it in May 2018 and went on to impose stinging sanctions on Iran, in particular targeting its vital oil sector.

The latest IAEA reports come just days after a meeting in Vienna of the remaining parties to the deal ended without a clear plan to keep the accord alive.

The 2015 agreement promised Iran an easing of very damaging economic and other sanctions in return for scaling back its nuclear programme.

Tehran has been progressively reducing its commitments to the accord in retaliation for the US move.