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God will help Israel persevere amid corona crisis, Netanyahu says – TV7 Israel News 26.03.20
March 26, 2020The Iranian nuclear program- Jerusalem Studio 499 –
March 25, 2020
Israel faces full lockdown as coronavirus rate mounts to 200-300 a day – DEBKAfile
March 24, 2020Source: Israel faces full lockdown as coronavirus rate mounts to 200-300 a day – DEBKAfile
The coronavirus task force lead by PM Binyamin Netanyahu decided on Monday, March 23, to tighten the lockdown on the population after an 8-hour debate. With the number of confirmed cases increasing by 200-300 a day, the health authorities warned that failing a full lockdown, Israel would soon risk hundreds of fatalities on the scale of the calamities in Italy and Spain.
Up until Monday night, there were 1,238 confirmed cases, 24 in serious condition and one death. The figure then jumped to 1,442.
According to the new regulations, to be released by the prime minister on Tuesday, people will be allowed to leave home only to shop for food and medication â all other shops will be shut â and stay within walking distance of their homes while carrying ID. Still to be decided is a measure to confine all people over the age of 65 to their homes indefinitely as the group most vulnerable to life-threatening infection from the virus. If approved, this measure would apply to 1.4 million people. Public transport will moreover be further scaled down with mainline transport operating at a minimum. Banks will continue to function and provide services, and restaurants to offer takeaway or deliveries â but no seating.
Some of the participants in the discussion suggested that schools would not be able to go back to normal after the Passover holiday as first estimated and may remain closed for the summer up until the next school year in September.
Discussions on how to cope with the next stage of the pandemicâs spread took place under the shadow of the lingering political crisis, which was complicated by a sharp constitutional dispute further disrupting efforts to establish an emergency government for the covid-19 crisis. On Monday, as the new Knesset was about to hold its first session, the Supreme Court ordered Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) to announce by the end of the day that he would hold a vote on Wednesday on the opposition Kahol Lavonâs motion to displace him with one of their lawmakers.
Likud ministers condemned this step as unconstitutional judicial intervention in the workings of the legislature and urged Edelstein to reply to the court in the negative.
Israel sees 371-case spike in confirmed coronavirus cases in a single day
March 24, 2020Source: 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 âworrying, it is like the Italian rate.â 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.
Israelâs 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.
IDF Efforts to Fight COVID-19
March 23, 2020
US to Iran: Coronavirus won’t save you from sanctionsÂ
March 20, 2020Source: US to Iran: Coronavirus won’t save you from sanctions – The Jerusalem Post
“Washington’s increased pressure against Iran is a crime against humanity,” an Iranian official said. “All the world should help each other to overcome this disease,” he added.
A cleric man wears a protective mask amid concerns over the coronavirus (COVID-19) spread, at Najaf airport in the holy city of Najaf upon his arrival from Iran
(photo credit: REUTERS/ALAA AL-MARJANI)
WASHINGTON/DUBAI- The United States sent Iran a blunt message this week: the spread of the coronavirus will not save it from US sanctions that are choking off its oil revenues and isolating its economy.
Iran is the Middle Eastern nation worst hit by coronavirus, with its death toll climbing to 1,284 and one person dying from it every 10 minutes and 50 becoming infected every hour, the health ministry said.
The United States, which argues that its “maximum pressure” campaign to curb Iran’s nuclear, missile and regional activities does not stop the flow of humanitarian goods, imposed new sanctions this week.
The Trump administration blacklisted five companies based in the United Arab Emirates, three in mainland China, three in Hong Kong and one in South Africa for trade in Iran’s petrochemicals.
“Washington’s increased pressure against Iran is a crime against humanity,” an Iranian official told Reuters. “All the world should help each other to overcome this disease.”
Some analysts suggested the Trump administration should do more to speed the flow of humanitarian goods into Iran, though they saw little evidence to suggest this was in the offing.
“Our policy of maximum pressure on the regime continues,” Brian Hook, the US Special Representative for Iranian Affairs, told reporters. “US sanctions are not preventing aid from getting to Iran.”
On Monday, China called on the United States to give Iran sanctions relief for humanitarian reasons but US officials, foreign diplomats and analysts saw no signs of this.
“While Iran is an epicenter of this virus outbreak and facing true economic catastrophe … there will be no relief on sanctions,” said Elizabeth Rosenberg of the Center for a New American Security think tank.
Hook said Washington sent a diplomatic note to Tehran offering help with coronavirus “and it was quickly rejected.”
He also blamed Iran’s leadership for its coronavirus woes, saying that Iran “spends billions on terrorism and foreign wars” and that if it spent one tenth of this “on a better health care system, the Iranian people would have been much better off.”
In what might be a gesture to Washington, Tehran released US citizen Michael White from its custody though he must stay in Iran.
Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution think tank said Iran allowing White or other detained US citizens to fly home might appeal to President Donald Trump.
“I still don’t believe this administration wants to provide a lot of leeway to the Iranian authorities but that doesn’t mean they can’t or shouldn’t be looking for every opportunity to” get medical supplies into Iran, she said.
The outbreak in Iran was likely to spread as Iranians travel for the Nowruz new year’s celebration, she added, saying this could hurt US security partners across the region.
“Iran is Italy, only on steroids,” Maloney said, alluding to the outbreak in Italy, whose coronavirus death toll on Thursday overtook that of China, where the virus emerged.
Mark Dubowitz, an Iran hawk with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies policy group, said Washington could send medical goods to Iran via private groups but should not ease sanctions.
“At the very time Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq are killing Americans and Brits and others, this would be exactly the wrong time to be providing any kind of economic relief to the regime,” he said, referring to last week’s attack on a military camp in Iraq that killed one British and two US personnel.
“We should be sending medical supplies directly to Iranians through non-governmental organizations and bypass the regime.”
Iranians appeared to have mixed feelings about whether Washington was making its outbreak worse.
“America’s sanctions are preventing Iran from getting necessary medicine and equipment to fight against this virus. They have to lift it,” said dentist Arash Hosseini, 52, in Tehran.
But Twitter user @fnikjoo, suggested sanctions relief would just provide “Money to support more terrorists in the region and beyond.”
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