Government under quarantine: Seven MKs in isolation, one has corona

Ministers Ze’ev Elkin, Orly Levy and Ya’akov Avitan are in isolation on Sunday after coming in contact with Minister Rafi Peretz, who has coronavirus. Peretz was diagnosed shortly after Shabbat on Friday.

In addition to the ministers, some of Peretz’s advisers were forced to quarantine, as was Jerusalem District Police Commander Doron Yedid.

“When Shabbat came out, it unfortunately became clear that I was positive for coronavirus,” Peretz wrote on his Twitter account. “I am currently feeling well and I wish a complete recovery for all Israeli patients.”

 

Peretz caught the virus from his director-general, who was diagnosed with coronavirus last week.

Minister Eli Cohen and MKs Avi Dichter and Osnat Mark are also in isolation, though they came in contact with another patient, a Likud activist who visited the Knesset last week.

The activist, Alon Azoulay, also met with Ministers Miri Regev, Ofir Akunis and Amir Ohana, but after completing epidemiological investigations, the Health Ministry said they did not have to enter quarantine.

Peretz was in contact with Minister Ya’acov Litzman, as well, but Litzman did not have to enter isolation because he had coronavirus in the past.

Recall, in April, Litzman was health minister when he contracted coronavirus, putting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, National Security Council Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and then Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov into quarantine, among several others.