The Corona Commissioner said at the Corona Cabinet meeting that there was no justification for closing at the weekend • The Prime Minister stressed that the critical goal is to reduce infections and demanded that an outline be formulated to achieve it

• Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prof. Gamzo

  Photo: 

  Tal Shahar

During the meeting of the Corona Cabinet today (Monday), the Special Commissioner for the Fight against the Corona, Prof. Roni Gamzo, said that in his opinion there is no justification for continuing the partial closure on the weekends. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized that the step that is now required is to lower the rates of infection, so first of all, an orderly plan must be presented that will provide an answer to this urgent problem. As part of the plan, he said, it is also possible to stop the partial closures on the weekends.

The Prime Minister's Office stated in this context that Netanyahu "instructed to bring a proposal to the Corona cabinet table within 48 hours to reduce contacts and reduce the number of people infected."

At today's meeting, the ministers did not reach decisions regarding the next steps in the fight to stop the corona, and the ministers' forum will convene next Wednesday for another discussion.

At the beginning of the meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that "the level of morbidity in Israel is among the highest in the world - this is the bad news. The good news is that for the past two weeks or so, we have been on a 'plateau' (straight line of morbidity; etc.) ".

Netanyahu also stressed that "the morbidity must be reduced. We simply must. We can not leave it as it is. This wave is currently hitting most countries anew. The virus is the virus. "

Prof. Gamzo in a message to the public: "Are there any symptoms? Get tested!"

At the meeting, which for the first time included the limited composition of the corona cabinet, various suggestions were made as to how to reduce the spread of the corona. Among other things, four possible outlines for closure were mentioned: full closure, night closure, weekend closure and local closures. It is assumed that there will be a combination of two or three of the tools.

However, the decision will be made only after the Ministry of Health collects more information and presents it to ministers. In addition, senior officials from the Ministry of Health, including Prof. Gamzo, were asked to formulate clear and permanent indicators that would define what makes a locality "red." During the discussion, the possibility arose that a professional team would decide on the imposition of the closures and not the political echelon.

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In addition, the ministers asked senior Ministry of Health officials to re-examine the restrictions on gathering in a public place. The request arose, among other things, following the words of Minister Aryeh Deri, who said that he did not understand why the number of participants in weddings could not be increased to 40 or 50 people, as long as they were held in an open space.