On Monday, the Health Ministry reported that there were 884 people diagnosed with coronavirus in the last day – 7.2% of those tested, plus another 1,085 between midnight and press time on Monday. Among the total number of sick people are 388 in serious condition, including 112 who are intubated. Ten people died between midnight and press time, bringing the country’s death toll to 612.“I think the ‘traffic light’ model is correct,” said coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu, who recently gained approval for a framework that would put mayors in charge of working with the Home Front Command and Health Ministry to keep infection rates down in their areas.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “I am constantly dealing – apart from security – with two major tasks: maintaining health and life, and opening up the economy: providing incentives for the economy and getting the economy moving.“The government needs to be stabilized to operate efficiently,” he continued. “When MK [Tzvi] Hauser contacted me and said, ‘Give another opportunity to try to stabilize the political system so we will have a government that can continue to take action in the fight against coronavirus’ – I said I was willing.“We need to make every effort to avoid elections, stabilize the government and fight the coronavirus from a health standpoint, and fight to open up the economy. This is what we are doing. I also hope that we are doing this successfully.”Netanyahu charged the municipalities with “the most important thing you can do,” which was enforcing the Health Ministry’s directives of wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding gatherings.“A solution to the coronavirus will be found when a vaccine is found – we are working on it,” the prime minister said. “The second solution, until the vaccine is found, is to establish the ability to cut off the chains of infection.”He said the goal was to cut the number of new daily diagnoses down to around 500.“We know what our residents need, where they hang out,” added Bibas. “The [traffic light] model will increase the motivation of mayors as well as residents.”
Coronavirus crisis: Municipalities take greater role in stopping infection
“I think the ‘traffic light’ model is correct,” said coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu. Some 7.2% of people tested in the last day were found to have the virus.
