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Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Complexities of Israel's COVID 19 High Numbers

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                 


Cases                                    Deaths                            Recovered    
.......................................................................................................
Israel 
       41,235                                        368                            19,474

The United States
  3,516,905                                  138,784                        1.542,776

The World
13,361,059                                  580,191                        7,746,443

According to the Health Ministry, 1,360 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 since Friday evening, raising the total number of cases to 37,464. Of those, 18,296 are active cases.  

Update: July 6th was a 2nd nd wave of COVID 19. It only took one week and Israel gained 1,141 new cases.  (JBS TV). This happened after starting back  to more normal restrictions after a too soon to end the home- bound rules; possibly due to economic hardships.  

The above numbers are from today.  Israel is closing up everything for 10 days because their numbers are so high.  The PA is closing their territory of Judea-Samaria for 14 days.  Why is Israel's numbers so high when they have among their population so many educated people, so many scientists of which many are working on this virus to find solutions?  

Israel is the 3rd highest country in Europe to get the infections, says WHO (World Health Organization).  Their economy has been hit very hard, and people are protesting about it.  They have not had an aid program to alleviate the hardship all are under. One is just now being developed by Netanyahu.  Israel has a population as of today's UN numbers of 8,659,643.  6 million are Jewish.  Others are Muslims and some Christians and others.  

" The first case in Israel was confirmed on 21 February 2020, when a female citizen tested positive for coronavirus disease in 2019 at the Sheba Medical Center after return from quarantine on the Diamond Princess ship in Japan. As a result, a 14-day home isolation rule was instituted for anyone who had visited South Korea or Japan, and a ban was placed on non-residents and non-citizens who were in South Korea for 14 days before their arrival." 

The rest of their history is like the USA's development. 

 "Beginning on 11 March, Israel began enforcing social distancing and other rules to limit the spread of infection. Gatherings were first restricted to no more than 100 people, and on 15 March this figure was lowered to 10 people, with attendees advised to keep a distance of 2 m (6 ft 7 in) between one another. 

On 19 March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a national state of emergency, saying that existing restrictions would henceforth be legally enforceable, and violators would be fined. Israelis were not allowed to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary. Essential services—including food stores, pharmacies, and banks—would remain open. 

Restrictions on movement were further tightened on 25 March and 1 April, with all individuals instructed to cover their noses and mouths outdoors. As coronavirus diagnoses spiked in the city of Bnei Brak, reaching nearly 1,000 infected individuals at the beginning of April, the cabinet voted to declare the city a "restricted zone", limiting entry and exit for a period of one week. Coinciding with the Passover Seder. 

On the night of 8 April, lawmakers ordered a 3-day travel ban and mandated that Israelis stay within 100 m (330 ft) of their home on the night of the Seder. On 12 April, Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem were placed under closure.


On 20 March, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor in Jerusalem who suffered from previous illnesses was announced as the country's first casualty.
 Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus on 2 April; Litzman was the first member of the cabinet to be infected.
The pandemic came amid the absence of an official government, as no ruling coalition had been formed following the 2020 Israeli legislative election, the third since the dissolution of the government in December 2018.
 Netanyahu continued to act as prime minister, and has been accused of adopting additional powers in the effort to monitor and contain the spread of the virus."  I would think he needed to do so.  Thank goodness!  
Israel has so many countries represented to make up the Jewish population, that the government has set a multi-lingual website with information and instructions regarding the pandemic. Among the languages: English, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Amharic, French, Spanish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Thai, Chinese, Tigrinya, Hindi, Filipino.                      
Dan Eskow, I painted this in Israel.
Danny's wearing an Israeli-size prayer shawl
doing morning prayers, much larger than
typical US made prayer shawls.  
Israel is a Jewish nation and most people are Orthodox Jews.  This calls for at least a minion of 10 men to pray together at a synagogue.  Now we have restrictions of staying at home, where prayers must be held.  They could manage by allowing 10 men at a time on a rotating system each day to attend, and could sit apart.  That's my suggestion.  Three is an important number as well.  Three men could gather yet be apart in apartments where men could meet from the same building, for most people live in apartment buildings.  
"The Health Ministry's rules on indoor gatherings, which were reduced from 100 to 10, still take into account the minimum number of members needed for a minyan (public prayer quorum). With stricter restrictions placed on citizens on 25 March (see below), the two Chief Rabbis of Israel called for all synagogues to be closed and prayer services to be held outdoors in groups of 10, with 2 m (6 ft 7 in) between each worshipper. Many synagogues in Jerusalem were locked and prayer services held outdoors.
 Due to the uptick in coronavirus diagnoses in Bnei Brak and after initially ordering his followers to ignore Health Ministry restrictions, leading Haredi posekChaim Kanievsky, eventually issued an unprecedented statement on 29 March instructing Bnei Brak residents not to pray with a minyan at all, but rather individually at home. Despite this, Kanievsky was acccused of secretly arranging public prayers at his house.
"Beginning on April 1 the government proposed to intensify precautionary restrictions on its citizens, requiring them to: refrain from all public gatherings, including prayer quorums of 10 men; limiting outings to two people from the same household; and calling upon them to always wear face masks in public."
 According to Israeli Ministry of Health statistics, 24% of all coronavirus infections in Israel with known infection points (35% of all known cases) were contracted in synagogues, 15% in hotels, and 12% in restaurants.
After back-and-forth discussions with representatives of the chevra kadisha (Jewish religious burial society), the Health Ministry allowed burial society members to proceed with many traditional aspects of burial for coronavirus victims. Burial workers will be garbed in full protective gear to perform the taharah (ritual purification) of the body, which will then be wrapped in the customary tachrichim (linen shrouds) followed by a layer of plastic. The funeral service must be held completely outdoors. Funeral attendees do not need to wear protective gear.
On 26 March, the Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre was closed.
On 1 April, the Chief Rabbis of Israel published guidelines for observance of Passover laws during the outbreak. The guidelines included praying at home and not in a minyan, selling chametz online, and getting rid of chametz at home in ways other than burning, so as not to go out into the streets for the traditional burning of the chametz. (Chametz are bread products.  The homes are throroughly  cleaned).  
Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman and his wife tested positive for the coronavirus on 2 April. News reports later claimed that Litzman had violated the government's ban on participating in group prayer the day before he was diagnosed. His office denied the claims."
Netanyahu gave explicit directions; more so than the USA did for following rules about COVID 19 guidelines.
On 19 March, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared a national state of emergency. He said that existing restrictions would henceforth be legally enforceable, and violators would be fined. Israelis were not allowed to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary. Essential services would remain open.
 News reports showed hundreds of Israelis ignoring the new ban on Shabbat, 21 March, and visiting beaches, parks, and nature spots in large numbers, prompting the Ministry of Health to threaten imposing tighter restrictions on the public." This most likely occurred in Tel Aviv where people there would be out on the beaches on Saturday, their only day off work.  

Chief of the General StaffAviv Kochavi (center) examines the military laboratory for the diagnosis of coronavirus patients at Tzrifin base, together with Chief of Technological and Logistics DirectorateYitzhak Turgeman (left), Chief Medical OfficerTarif Bader (right), and members of the Military Rabbinate
On 25 March, the government imposed stricter restrictions on citizens' movements. These included:
  • People must not venture more than 100 m (330 ft) from their homes.
  • Beginning on April 12, the government required all Israelis to cover their nose and mouth when leaving their homes. Exceptions include "children under age 6; people with emotional, mental or medical conditions that would prevent them from wearing a mask; drivers in their cars; people alone in a building; and two workers who work regularly together, provided they maintain social distancing". The new law was passed on the same day that the World Health Organization questioned the efficacy of face masks for protecting healthy individuals from catching the virus.

WHO questioned the need to wear masks?
Now we find it is most important to do so and that healthy people might 
be carriers of COVID 19 as well.  
                                                     
Bnai Brak April 2020
On 2 April, the cabinet voted by conference call to declare Bnei Brak a "restricted zone", limiting entry and exit to "residents, police, rescue services, those bringing essential supplies and journalists", for an initial period of one week. With a population of 200,000, Bnei Brak had the second-highest number of coronavirus cases of all Israeli cities in total numbers, and the highest rate per capita." It is also a well-known ultra-Orthodox neighborhood.  

 On 10 April the closure was relaxed to allow residents to leave the city to go to work, attend a funeral of an immediate relative, or for essential medical needs.

Bnai Brak shut street down around a Yeshiva after 47 people tested positive for the virus.  It was the Beit Matityahu Yeshiva on Yisrael Misalant street which is one of the Haredi community's most prestigous religious schools. Dozens are still waiting for coronavirus tests or their results. Tel Aviv suburb still reels from one of country's worst outbreaks, as ultra-Orthodox community asks whether school authorities allowed students to get tested.  This Tel Aviv suburb still reels from one of country's worst outbreaks, as ultra-Orthodox community asks whether school authorities allowed students to get tested.
                                                    
Illustrative. Volunteer scientists process samples taken from people tested for the novel coronavirus, at a laboratory recently dedicated for the processing of COVID-19 samples by Medicines Discovery Catapult, at The Lighthouse Lab at Alderley Park in Cheshire, northern England, on April 22, 2020. (Paul ELLIS / AFP)
In May, Israel labs confirmed that they had a breakthrough with the virus antibody, but said they are months away from the cure. This state-run facility says it is ‘first in world’ to reach 3 major milestones in COVID-19 fight; antibody could yield a treatment but has yet to be tested on animals, let alone humans.

I reiterate.  Israel makes up only 2/10 of a percent of the world's population.  Descendants of Europe's few Jews now live here, along with those that managed to stay, and Jews, wherever they may have lived, have won 23% of all Nobel Prizes, are 21% of all Ivy League students, have won 51% of Pulitzer Prizes for non-fiction and account for 31% of all Academy Award directions.  They are working together with other countries on COVID 19.  They are bright people.  They will get these numbers down.  They are fighting COVID 19.  
Update: 7/14/2020 9pm West Coast Time
Resource:
https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/israel-population/#:~:text=The%20current%20population%20of%20Israel,of%20the%20total%20world%20population.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/coronavirus-israel-breaking-live-updates-july-1.8970693?utm_source=traffic.outbrain.com&utm_medium=referrer&utm_campaign=outbrain_organic 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Israel 
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-bnei-brak-yeshiva-shut-down-after-47-people-test-positive-for-coronavirus-1.8963916
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-bnei-brak-yeshiva-shut-down-after-47-people-test-positive-for-coronavirus-1.8963916
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-lab-confirms-breakthrough-with-virus-antibody-but-says-months-till-cure/


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