Yuli Edelstien: We'll have to act if COVID-19 takes a turn for the worse
When asked if the country lost control over the second wave of the virus, Edelstein said that no country truly has control of the virus
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFMinister of Health Yuli Edelstein speaks during a press conference about the coronavirus COVID-19, at the Health Ministry in Jerusalem on June 28, 2020.(photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told Kan 11 on Friday that if coronavirus takes a turn for the worse the government will have to act, and that he hopes that Israel will not reach the point in which another full lockdown is necessary.In the interview, he explained that both the people and the government should do everything in their power to stop the spread of the coronavirus.When asked if the country lost control over the second wave of the virus, Edelstein said that no country truly has control of the virus, citing the case of New Zealand who he mocked, saying that after having zero patients later found more.He also said that Israel and other countries are in different phases of the outbreak, as Israel closed down quickly to take control of the first wave. Edelstein added that the first lockdown had to be lifted in order for people to be able to work, as to not cause a social and economic collapse.When asked about preparation for the second wave, Edelstien said that while the public saw a small break, the people of the Health Ministry had no such break. He claims the lessons have been learned. He also said that finding the infection chains was not sufficient in stopping the virus.Edelstein claimed that Israel is among the top rated countries in terms of testing and that many more are under way, though he admitted that there is room to improve in terms of how much time it takes for the results to arrive."The bottle neck was discovered at the labs when we started doing more tests, we still need to improve the time it takes for the results to arrive,” Edelstein told Kan 11.Israel hit another record on Friday evening, as the Health Ministry reported that 1,130 people were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus the day before.Among the now 10,060 sick patients (17,669 of Israel’s 28,055 patients have already recovered), some 77 are in serious condition - a number that has continued to grow in the past week.Moreover, the death toll is rising, reaching 326 on Friday morning.Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman contributed to this report.
