WarSclerotic

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran said Friday the security forces will clear the streets nationwide within 24 hours so all citizens can be checked for coronavirus — its toughest measure yet to combat the outbreak.

The COVID-19 epidemic in Iran — a nation of more than 80 million people — has now claimed over 500 lives and infected more than 11,000.

Since it announced the first deaths last month, Iran has shut schools, postponed events and discouraged travel ahead of Nowrouz, the country’s New Year holidays.

But despite those and other measures including the cancellation of the main weekly Friday prayers, the official number of deaths and infections has continued to grow exponentially.

Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday ordered the armed forces to lead the battle against the outbreak.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei instructed the security forces to bring their services together and expand efforts to combat the virus.

Iranians, some wearing protective face masks, at stalls displaying produce at the Tajrish Bazaar in Iran’s capital Tehran on March 12, 2020. (AFP photo)

Acting on those orders, armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri chaired a meeting on Friday that included Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami and police chief Hossein Ashtari.

Among other top brass at the gathering was Gholamreza Soleimani, who heads the Basij, a volunteer militia loyal to the establishment, as was Defence Minister Amir Hatami.

Bagheri appeared in front of the cameras later to say a newly formed commission had been charged with overseeing the “emptying of shops, streets and roads” within the next 24 hours.

Entire nation to monitored

“During the next 10 days, the entire Iranian nation will be monitored once through cyberspace, by phone and, if necessary, in person, and those suspected of being ill will be fully identified,” he said.

It was difficult to estimate on Friday the real extent of the measures announced by the general.

News of the lockdown came as Iran said the novel coronavirus had claimed another 85 lives, its highest single-day toll since the first deaths were announced on February 19.

“Sadly, 85 people infected with the COVID-19 disease have died in the past 24 hours,” health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said.

“Across the country, at least 1,289 infected people have been added to the list of confirmed patients.”

In all, the ministry says 514 people have been killed by the illness out of 11,364 confirmed cases of infection in Iran.

Several politicians and officials have been infected, with some dying from the illness.

The latest suspected case was Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises Iran’s supreme leader on foreign policy.

Velayati fell ill with “mild symptoms” on Wednesday and has been placed in quarantine, according to Tasnim news agency.

Iran on Thursday said it asked the International Monetary Fund for its first loan in decades to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged the IMF to “stand on the right side of history”.

‘Right direction’

Zarif also appealed to the United Nations for an end to US sanctions, which he said were “undermining our efforts to fight the COVID-19 epidemic in Iran”.

The United States is currently pursuing a policy of “maximum pressure” aimed at crippling the Iranian government’s finances.

President Donald Trump launched the campaign in 2018 after unilaterally withdrawing the US from a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposing sanctions.

In theory, humanitarian items are exempt from the US sanctions, but in reality banks tend to turn down transactions involving Iran to avoid being exposed to potential litigation.

The World Health Organization praised Iran as a delegation of WHO and public health experts left the country after a five-day mission.

“We see that Iran’s strategies and priorities to control COVID-19 are evolving in the right direction,” said Richard Brennan, WHO regional emergency director.

“But more needs to be done,” he said in a statement.

“We agreed on several priority areas for scale-up with the national health authorities, based on informed experiences in China and elsewhere.”

The Israeli government is set to announce further widespread and stringent measures to try to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, including transitioning staff at workplaces deemed non-essential to work from home, and further limiting public gatherings and movement. The raft of new measures, in addition to those already in force, are likely to paralyze up to 50 percent of the Israeli economy, TV reports said Friday night.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat Friday with top ministers and advisers working on the next steps and was expected to make the announcements on Saturday night, Hebrew media reported. However, Israel was expected to stop short of declaring a state of emergency or imposing a lockdown or curfews.

Among the steps being discussed and likely to be announced are ordering non-essential workers to work from home, limitations or bans on public transport, shutting preschools and creches, limiting access to some malls and shutting others. Some government workers will also be shifted to working from home, TV reports said. Officials were said to be working to determine how many Israeli workers would be classified as non-essential.

All essential workers and workplaces would continue as usual, with extra staff to be recruited.

An empty cafe in the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv on March 13, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The government was also considering releasing prisoners with light sentences to reduce prison crowding.

Despite the devastating effects to the economy, officials have repeatedly promised that there will be no food shortages, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday there was “no reason to storm the supermarkets.”

“We are investing considerable means right now to increase the pace of testing, to reduce the infection rate and – of course – to reinforce, strengthen and safeguard the medical teams, as well as many other things,” Netanyahu said after the Friday meeting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a meeting to decide on measures to contain the coranavirus with participants sitting at least a meter apart on March 13 2020 (Screencapture/Channel 12)

“There will be enough food in general and for the (upcoming Passover) holiday,” Netanyahu said.

Like many other places in the world, Israelis have been stocking up on supplies, fearing extended periods of quarantine, lockdown orders, or shortages.

Further financial steps were being planned to help people affected by the crisis, lost work and shut businesses, reports said, including easing criteria for unemployment benefits. Banks would also be encouraged to ease terms for loan repayments.

Channel 12 said Israel was also considering reducing or barring the entry of Palestinian workers from the West Bank and would consider giving the Palestinian Authority some kind of financial compensation to ensure the Palestinian economy did not collapse.

The front seat of a public bus at the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem is blocked off as part of measures against the coronavirus, March 10, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Israel has already closed universities and schools across the country.

Israel has taken a number of far-reaching measures to contain and fight the virus, but has so far stopped short of steps such as banning all non-essential domestic travel or ordering the closure of most businesses.

All Israelis returning from overseas are required to quarantine at home for 14 days. Non-Israeli nationals were barred from entering the country as of Thursday at 8 p.m., unless they can demonstrate an ability to self-quarantine for two weeks. Some 35,000 Israelis are said to be in quarantine, almost 1,000 of them doctors and over 600 nurses. Three Israelis are seriously ill with the virus, and almost 150 have tested positive. Nobody has died.

Any public gatherings of over 100 people have been banned, leading to the cancellation of sports games and numerous other events, as well as the closure of theaters and many hotels.

That order, which went into effect Thursday, applies to weddings, bar mitzvahs and funerals, and covers “both closed and open spaces,” according to the Health Ministry.

The regulation has also impacted religious life, with Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef on Thursday calling on Israelis to avoid large prayer gatherings at the Western Wall and saying Health Ministry directives should be treated as Jewish law “for all intents and purposes.”

Police announced Friday they were carrying out hundreds of inspections to ensure compliance with the ban on gatherings of over 100 people.

Across the world, authorities have canceled sporting events, theater productions, TV show tapings, concerts and anything that draws a crowd in a frantic effort to keep the virus from spreading in places where people congregate.

Religious Jews at the Rashbi gravesite, which was split into two parts as part of preventive measures against coronavirus, in Meron, northern Israel, March 13, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

The closures are just the latest blow wrought by a series of measures that have seen public life in Israel and around the world contract significantly in the hopes of cutting down meetings between people and chances for the virus to spread.

Netanyahu on Thursday called the pandemic “a global event unlike anything” the country had seen. He warned that “the potential number of deaths is very high and we must take action to prevent that.” Tens of thousands of Israeli lives were at stake, he said, and he intimated that tens of millions could die worldwide if the virus was not thwarted.

He said Israel’s efforts were focused on slowing the spread of the virus so that it doesn’t cause vast numbers of ill people to require medical attention at the same time and overwhelm the health care system.

Netanyahu called on his political rival, the Blue and White party headed by Benny Gantz, to join him and immediately form a temporary emergency government following a year-long political deadlock. Gantz has indicated a willingness to do so, though the terms of such a government were not immediately clear.

Health Minister Yaakov Litzman said his ministry was aiming to greatly expand the number of Israelis tested every day for COVID-19, from the current 600 to 2,000 and more.

Worldwide, there have been over 134,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and over 5,600 deaths since it first emerged in China in December, according to AFP figures.

The World Health Organization has declared the virus a pandemic and warned Friday it was “impossible” to know when it would peak.

An effective Israeli-developed vaccine for coronavirus is on track to be ready for testing within “a few weeks,” though it won’t be available for months because of the lengthy and sometimes bureaucratic testing and approval process, a member of the development team said Tuesday.

Chen Katz told The Times of Israel that the new oral vaccine for adults and children could “turn this disease into a very mild cold.” He said that for many people who are inoculated and then infected by COVID-19, “potentially it will not affect them at all.”

The rapid potential progress by the state-funded Migal Galilee Research Institute stems from the fact that the institute has been working for four years toward a vaccine that could be customized for various viruses, and has now adapted that work to focus on the coronavirus, he said.

Nonetheless, while Israel’s science ministry made headlines last week by touting the institute’s work and saying that its vaccine could be three months away, Dr. Asher Shalmon, the Health Ministry’s director of international relations, has warned against placing “false hopes” in it.

IDr. Chen Katz (Courtesy)

The vaccine will consist of a specially produced protein, and Katz said he expects to be clutching a bottle of it within “a few weeks.” But then comes clinical testing, which will take place in conjunction with a partner, and the paperwork, both of which will take time.

Katz, Biotechnology Group Leader at the institute, said: “By the time the protein is ready, we hope to have found the right partner who can take us through the clinical stage. The clinical testing experiments themselves are not so long, and we can complete them in 30 days, plus another 30 days for human trials. Most of the time is bureaucracy — regulation and paperwork.”

Time could also be lost because of “waiting points” between the different stages of the process, until regulators give the nod for things to move forward.

Dr. Asher Shalmon (Courtesy)

He spoke of the excitement that his team felt when it realized that the research it had been engaged in for four years could be tweaked to combat coronavirus. “The opportunity is amazing here,” he said. “Everyone wants to know we can contribute something to humanity and when we found we had the right tools to do it this became is very exciting.”

Katz’s group at Israel’s state-funded Migal Institute has become a source of hope to many around the world since it revealed on February 27 that it is working on the vaccine, and said it hoped to achieve “safety approval” in 90 days.

For four years, the research of Katz’s team had been focused on developing a vaccine that could be customized to various viruses. It was piloting it with Infectious Bronchitis Virus, but as as coronavirus swept China, started adapting the vaccine for COVID-19.

Its February 27 announcement prompted a widespread expectation among the public that people would soon be protected against coronavirus, which prompted Shalmon’s warning against “false hopes.”

Katz clarified that the 90-day time frame in the February 27 statement was until the product is ready for human testing, and said he still believes this is realistic. He said that skeptics should understand that his team is not working on new research, but rather customizing an existing innovation, meaning that a fast turnaround is realistic. He stated: “The important thing is that we were working on a vaccine, unrelated to this outbreak, and this is a great advantage.”

Katz revealed that the development process is sufficiently advanced that his ten-person team doesn’t need the virus. Instead, it went on the internet soon after the outbreak began, found the sequence of the virus which had been published, and got to work.

He said that the vaccine will be double-barreled, deploying two means to defend people against coronavirus.

The first protection triggers a response in the mouth to stop COVID-19 entering the body. Katz explained: “We are developing the proteins that are needed for our technology of the oral vaccination. They are special proteins which, when sprayed in to the mouth, penetrate the epithelial cells inside the mouth and activate a mucosal immune response, which is the part of the immune response in our body that protects the entry point of the virus.”

The second level of protection kicks in if COVID-19 enters the body. It will bolster the immune system in such a way “that when viral particles penetrate, there will be an immune protection, of antibodies and the right white blood cells.”

He said it will be administered by an oral spray, and will protect people who encounter COVID-19 two weeks after being administered. He stressed: “This is not a drug, not for treatment, only for prevention.”

When The Times of Israel talked to him on Tuesday, Katz’s team, like many in Israel, was also celebrating the Purim festival with fancy dress — in Katz’s case a wig — and hamantaschen. Katz explained that there isn’t much that the team can do to further speed its work along, as it is waiting for scientific processes to chug through in their own time. “This is biology, so it takes its time,” he said.

Much of the work is done by bacteria, he stated, explaining a central part of the process, saying: “We take part of the virus DNA and introduce it to bacteria and make the bacteria produce the viral proteins.”

Israeli defense firm Elbit said Monday that its US subsidiary, Elbit America, had won a US Air Force contract worth up to $471 million.

The company will supply a missile warning system to F-16 fighter jets belonging to the US Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command.

The work will be carried out in Fort Worth, Texas, where Elbit’s US subsidiary is based, over a 10-year period. The fixed-price deal’s ceiling is $471.6 million and is starting with an order valued at $17 million, the Pentagon said.

Neither Elbit nor the Pentagon identified the specific system, only describing it as a pylon-based infrared missile warning system.

Elbit’s Passive Airborne Warning Systems (PAWS) are suitable for F-16s and can be configured to an aircraft’s pylons. The combat-tested system provides 360 degree threat detection and tracking, and automatically manages countermeasures, Elbit says. The Israeli military flies US-produced F-16s.

Elbit has disclosed over $1 billion in contracts since the start of 2020. It trades on the Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker ESLT.

Israel on Tuesday announced several new measures aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus, including banning gatherings of more than 2,000 people and limiting visits to hospitals and retirement homes.

“All public gatherings should seriously be reconsidered and all gatherings of over 2,000 people cannot go ahead,” the Health Ministry announced, reducing the current limit from 5,000 and saying that the number would be reviewed depending on developments.

It also provided new guidelines for dealing with vulnerable populations like the sick and elderly.

“The public should refrain from visiting hospitals and old age homes,” the statement said, adding that if someone needs a chaperone for a visit or appointment, they should make do with only one.

“People with symptoms are not allowed to accompany the sick or visit institutions for the senior community,” it said, noting that it again recommends that “the elderly, particularly those with underlying conditions, and those with compromised immune systems, reduce contact as much as possible with others while still maintaining their daily routines.”

The Welfare Ministry said anyone wanting to visit relatives in old age homes would be able to meet outside the facilities.

Workers at Tel HaShomer Hospital wait for Israelis who were under coronavirus quarantine on the cruise ship, Diamond Princess, in Japan, February 20, 2020. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Channel 13 news reported Tuesday that the Health Ministry has ordered 1,000 new respirators, in addition to the thousands in storage in emergency warehouses. According to the report, the move is to prevent a collapse of the health care system in the same way that Italian hospitals have struggled to keep up with the deluge of patients.

The IDF has called up an additional 100 reservists to assist the Magen David Adom ambulance service as the coronavirus spreads, the military said Tuesday. Thus far, approximately 200 reservists have been called up. Approximately 70 of them are assisting the IDF Home Front Command develop educational materials about the disease.

There have so far been 58 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Israel, most of them contracted by travelers returning from abroad.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday sent out additional itineraries of Israelis and tourists who were found to be carrying the coronavirus, ordering those in contact into quarantine.

Some of those who have been confirmed to have the infection visited facilities for the elderly before they went into quarantine.

The virus is of highest risk to the elderly and also those with underlying health problems.

The new guidelines come a day after Israel drastically ratcheted up its efforts to protect the country from the coronavirus threat, requiring all those arriving from abroad to go into quarantine.

All Israeli citizens returning from overseas were ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days with immediate effect. Non-Israeli citizens will be allowed into the country until Thursday at 8pm. But after that, they will be barred completely unless they can demonstrate that they have a place to quarantine here for 14 days.

The move will essentially shut down tourism and send shockwaves through Israel’s already battered travel sector. Israelis who are abroad have been warned they should consider coming back sooner rather than later as increasing numbers of flights to Tel Aviv are being canceled by both El Al and other carriers.

Over 100 flights were canceled Tuesday at Ben Gurion Airport, Channel 12 reported.

People wearing face masks for fear of the coronavirus arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, March 10, 2020. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

The quarantine measures are among the most dramatic to be introduced by any nation in the intensifying battle against the coronavirus. On February 26, Israel had become the first country in the world to advise its citizens against all non-essential overseas travel.

The latest move went into effect immediately for Israelis, but will only be applied to non-Israelis beginning Thursday night, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said. It is not retroactive for those who have already returned from trips abroad, officials said.

The virus has infected more than 110,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,800 people.

Israel on Monday evening drastically ratcheted up its efforts to protect the country from the coronavirus threat, requiring all those arriving from abroad to go into quarantine.

All Israeli citizens returning to from overseas were ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days with immediate effect.

Non-Israeli citizens will be allowed into the country for another 72 hours. But after that, they will be barred completely unless they can demonstrate that they have a place to quarantine here for 14 days.

The move will essentially shut down tourism, and send shockwaves through Israel’s already battered travel sector.

Israel is “placing itself in international isolation,” Channel 12 news reported, anticipating that “thousands of international flights will now be cancelled.”

The measures are among the most dramatic to be introduced by any nation in the intensifying battle against the coronavirus. On February 26, Israel had become the first country in the world to advise its citizens against all non-essential overseas travel.

The latest move went into effect immediately for Israelis, but will only be applied to non-Israelis beginning Thursday night, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said. It is not retroactive for those who have already returned from trips abroad, officials said.

“This is a tough decision, but essential in order to protect public health — and the public health comes before all,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

He added that he had made the move in consultation with other ministers and experts after protracted discussions. On Sunday, he told a press conference, where he had been expected to announce restrictions for some US states, that instead he was considering taking the wider step, reportedly surprising some health officials, who had pushed for days for restrictions on Americans.

There have so far been 42 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Israel, most of them contracted by travelers returning from abroad. Authorities have for weeks ordered measures to clamp down on foreign entries and force home-quarantines that have been seen by some as draconian and diplomatically harmful, but officials have defended them as helping keep the virus at bay. Some 22,000 Israelis are already in quarantine, the Health Ministry said Monday morning.

Unlike other quarantine orders, which were open-ended, Netanyahu said this order will be in place for two weeks. He added that further decisions were being made by the government to protect the economy. He did not elaborate.

Screen capture from video of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing self-quarantine for anyone arriving in Israel, March 9, 2020. (YouTube)

Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar-Simantov told media that foreigners visiting the country will be granted entry if they can show that they have the means to likewise self-quarantine for 14 days.

Speaking to Channel 12 news, Deri said the development was a “very difficult decision.”

“We are a small country, more crowded than other places,” Deri said, explaining why the government nonetheless went ahead with the measures.

Deri confirmed that he had pushed for the order to not be applied retroactively because it would have scooped in upwards of 250,000 people. He told the station there would be no point in doing this because those Israelis who have returned in recent days have since had contact with their families and the public.

The decision to apply sweeping quarantine for travelers was made after meetings with Health Minister Yaakov Litzman along with all other relevant ministers, including those of finance, economy, tourism and interior, Netanyahu’s statement said.

The Israel Incoming Tour Operators Association called the quarantine decision a “death blow” to the tourism industry, Channel 12 reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Health Minister Yaakov Litzman hold a press conference about the coronavirus, at the Prime Ministers Office in Jerusalem on March 8, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The Health Ministry had been expected to announce the quarantine as the novel coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes continue to spread around the world and the number of cases in Israel increased to 42, including the first whose source of infection was not known.

Earlier Monday, Litzman told Army Radio that a wider set of protocols was a “necessary step.”

The health minister dismissed as “fake news” the suggestion that casting such a broad net would be an attempt to not single out the United States, where infection rates appear to be rocketing. He also denied that political considerations were tainting his ministry’s decisions, saying that there was “no problem” when Netanyahu spoke with US Vice President Mike Pence about the matter on Sunday.

The virus has infected more than 110,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,800 people.

The Israel Defense Forces announced Monday it was adopting stricter restrictions on troops and military installations and was preparing to roll out more as it fears the COVID-19 outbreak will worsen.

The restrictions will keep troops who travel abroad away from their units for two weeks, clamp down on who can visit bases, bar parents from enlistment centers, and significantly curb the scope of ceremonies in a bid to keep the the virus at bay.

IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said the coronavirus has not yet caused a major disruption to the IDF’s activities, though there are concerns that it may do so in the future.

According to Zilberman, while individual soldiers are being affected by the quarantine orders, their units are able to continue as normal.

“These shutdowns aren’t affecting the IDF’s fitness in a way that needs to worry anybody,” he said.

As part of the military’s new limitations, any soldier returning from a trip abroad — regardless of the country — will be barred from their unit for two weeks. “They don’t need to be in quarantine, but they can’t come to the IDF,” Zilberman said.

A young couple wearing protective masks are greeted upon arrival at Ben Gurion airport in Israel on March 4, 2020. (Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)

The military was also setting up an internal hospitalization unit for soldiers who contract the disease, he said.

At this stage, this facility will be designed to hold at most several dozen soldiers, Zilberman said.

In total, some 2,100 soldiers are currently in quarantine, most of them due to personal trips abroad, including a battalion commander. This marks a noticeable jump from the military’s previous statistic, which Zilberman said was a result of additional countries being added to the list of those requiring isolation. Another 300 soldiers have completed their required two-week isolation and returned to their units. One soldier has so far been diagnosed with the disease.

In the longer term, the IDF was preparing for the possibility that the coronavirus may become a full-blown national outbreak, in which case military bases would be used as field hospitals, Zilberman said.

In such a situation, IDF troops would also likely be called on to assist the Israel Police enforce quarantines on cities and towns with high incidences of the disease, he said.

Workers inside a building at Tel HaShomer Hospital which was converted to receive the Israelis who were under quarantine on the cruise ship Diamond Princess in Japan due to the spread of the coronavirus, and arriving in Israel tonight, February 20, 2020. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

In addition, the military was preparing to be called upon to assist the country’s health care system and to provide food and other necessities to Israelis if needed.

In terms of more immediate concerns, the head of the IDF Ground Forces was preparing to alter the military’s training schedule in light of the virus, particularly for reserve units, Zilberman said.

The spokesperson said the IDF would change its protocols for allowing civilian contractors and visitors onto army bases, requiring them to first fill out a screening questionnaire. A panel of questions will also be presented to troops entering headquarters and other sensitive offices.

Beginning later this month, the military will bar relatives and friends from accompanying their loved ones to enlistment centers when they join the military.

Ceremonies and conferences have also been limited as much as possible, and civilians will not be allowed to attend them. “Any unnecessary event will be canceled,” the military said.

In light of blowback to this proposal, Zilberman said the military planned to livestream the events on the internet so that family members could at least watch them.

Separately, a lockdown of the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, which saw a large outbreak of the virus last week, will remain in place until further notice, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett’s office said in a statement.

According to the spokesperson, as of Monday afternoon, the IDF intended to reopen the crossings between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Wednesday, which were closed beginning Sunday for this week’s Purim holiday.

The military announced it was closing Israel’s rarely used but still technically active border crossings with Lebanon and Syria until further notice.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett visits an IDF Home Front Command exercise simulating the spread of the coronavirus on March 8, 2020. (Defense Ministry)

On Sunday, the IDF Home Front Command held an exercise simulating how the spread of the virus will affect Israel’s health care system.

Zilberman said the military planned to conduct additional simulations and war games in the coming days.

Last week, Zilberman said the military’s ultimate goal was to “ensure the fitness of the IDF and prevent damage to it.”

He said the military was prepared to take whatever steps were necessary to ensure the functioning of the IDF, prevent the spread of the disease within it and assist in the national response.

“If a soldier had the virus and was in contact with his company and we have to [quarantine] the company, that’s what we’ll do,” he said.

All international exercises — both ones the IDF is participating in abroad and those being hosted in Israel — have been canceled.

The military also put in place a blanket ban on foreign travel for all troops — conscripts and career soldiers alike — though some exceptions may be made under specific circumstances.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennet, center, meets with IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, right, and other senior national security officials on March 4, 2020. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir was tasked with leading the military’s response to the virus, alongside the Operations Directorate, which is responsible for the IDF’s international relations; the Medical Corps; and the Home Front Command, which works closely with civilian emergency response services.

After emerging in China late last year, the virus has now infected over 100,000 people worldwide and killed over 3,400, most of them in China and Iran, though cases have been reported in countries and territories around the globe. Several dozen people in Israel have been diagnosed with the disease, and tens of thousands have been quarantined.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.