Israel’s health ministry urged to increase restrictions amid rising coronavirus cases

Israeli health officials reported more than 1,110 positive cases of the coronavirus on Friday for the first time in nearly four months, which is why the country’s Minister of Health, Nitzan Horowitz, requested that mobility restrictions or the use of a mask be increased.

In an interview this Saturday with Channel 13, Horowitz expressed doubts whether the measures the government has taken so far they had been “insufficient” given the increase in infections.

“We are seeing an increase in infections and serious cases. What are we waiting for? You have thousands of cases a day? Hundreds in serious condition? For hospitals to fill up? We must stop gambling,” a declared the head of the Health portfolio.

In addition, officials of the ministry They ask for the vaccination record to be put back into service, known as “Pass Vert”, to limit attendance at shows, restaurants and hotels, collects ‘The Times of Israel’.

This certificate allows access to certain areas only to people vaccinated against COVID-19, who present a test for the virus with a negative result, or who have recently passed the disease.

However, some health experts in the country have recalled that although the number of infections is increasing and record numbers have been recorded in recent months, the number of patients in serious condition is still much lower than in previous epidemics thanks to the mass vaccination campaign that took place in Israel.

In addition, From this Wednesday, a regulation will come into force which will limit the capacity of the rooms for weddings, parties and other events, under an economic penalty of around 1,300 euros to managers of establishments that violate the standard.

For his part, the Director General of the Ministry of Health, Nachman Ash, expressed this Saturday his idea that a new containment should not be carried out because of the coronavirus, but that he could not immediately dismiss this idea. . “Anything can happen, but we don’t want to end up with a confinement situation”he said in an interview for a local outlet.

In an assessment of the pandemic situation held in Tel Aviv over the weekend, the country’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expressed concern that the protection provided by COVID-19 vaccines was “weaker” than expected against the Delta variant.

“Those who hoped that vaccines alone would solve the problem know they won’t.”Bennett said at the meeting attended by ministers, health officials, members of the National Security Council, the police and the military.

“We don’t know exactly how much the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less” against Delta than previous strains. “We all expect to see a slowdown, but the facts at this point are that there is no slowdown, neither here nor in the world.” aseveró Bennett.

In this context, The country’s health authorities will include Spain in the list of countries to which Israelis are banned from traveling due to the high incidence of the virus. It will thus join other nations such as Uzbekistan, Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico and Russia.

(With information from Europa Press)