With the coronavirus pandemic, the time for an emergency gov't is now

When the coronavirus crisis began, Israel took the most extreme steps in the Western world, stopping flights first from China, then more countries in Asia and then much of Europe.

By JPOST EDITORIAL
PM Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with European leaders about coronavirus, March 2020 (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
PM Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with European leaders about coronavirus, March 2020
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Israel’s political quagmire and the global coronavirus pandemic have dovetailed into one chaotic situation with a potential death toll. More drastic steps need to be taken to help Israelis overcome the spread of the disease, but a thrice-interim government does not have the ability to do what it takes.
When the coronavirus crisis began, Israel took the most extreme steps in the Western world, stopping flights first from China, then more countries in Asia and then much of Europe. Self-quarantine orders have kept tens of thousands at home to ensure that they don’t spread the disease.
The plan looked like it was working. Up until a few days ago, there were no cases of unknown origin, meaning that there was no community transmission. And we still have no deaths from the virus.
But Israel passed 100 patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus on Thursday. Containment was not a failure, because it was never really attainable, and Israel has done a good job in fighting the odds.
Now, we need to move from containment to mitigation. Major action needs to be taken.
Though this is not yet the Health Ministry’s stated policy, we see that more and more people with light cases of COVID-19 are left at home instead of taken to hospitals.
This might be needed when the number of sick people is overwhelming, but for now it seems like a mistake that can make the difference between quelling the contagion or spreading it.
Many, if not most of the carriers will be self-quarantined at home with family members who are not isolated in the next room. The home quarantine system is not fail-proof and is, in fact, quite difficult to adhere to perfectly. In the past few days, there have been multiple cases of contagion within a family, in which some members were supposed to be isolated and others were not. And if the children of someone with a light case of the disease go to meet friends, they can spread the virus to the many people with which they will come into close contact.
As long as it is possible, there should be a policy of separation between healthy and sick people. Otherwise, a far greater number of people will catch coronavirus, putting lives at risk.
If the Health Ministry has determined that the hospitals are overloaded and therefore light cases in low-risk populations do not need to be hospitalized – which is reasonable – then perhaps hostels, which are not being used anyway because tourism is essentially frozen, can be commandeered for this purpose.
The other issue is the backlog in testing for the virus. At least one diagnosed case was in someone who was hospitalized with pneumonia and, despite repeatedly saying he was at risk for COVID-19, was not tested.
Only after he was released from the hospital and then went back to the emergency room to demand – yet again – that he be tested, did they test him and find that he had coronavirus.
An MDA spokesman said that it can take up to 48 hours between a call to report symptoms and a test being administered – and people in quarantine have reported that it took longer. Then, it can take an additional 12-48 hours for results to come in.
Netanyahu said during Wednesday’s press conference that developing self-tests that can be administered at home is a priority for the government. This is a smart strategy, because we can’t keep people healthy without knowing who’s sick.
But we need more from our prime minister than press conferences and instructions to carry tissues, and cough into our elbows instead of our hands. Yes, we citizens must do what we can to be super-hygienic and quell the virus’s spread. But the government needs to be able to take massive action for its efforts to continue to be effective.
In order to do that, we need an actual government. Likud and Blue and White need to reach an agreement and quickly swear in a government; even if it may not last very long, that is what the country needs now. Our politicians have to put aside petty differences and realize that there is a global emergency that needs to be addressed – for the good of the people of Israel.