Health Ministry Director Prof. Moshe Bar Siman Tov said: "Even in our best-case scenarios, there will be thousands of patients in Israel and people here will die. This is not the time to go to the parks and the beach - just sit at home," he said.
"Italy's scenarios can happen here as well. Whatever we do - we will see an increase in the number of patients in coming days. Thousands in Israel could die from coronavirus," he said.
"If we take the steps, we can flatten the curve. There'll still be many people who will die and many more will fall ill, but we can reach everyone... the ability to lower the number of patients depends on your behavior.
"We feel there isn't enough internalization among the public of the need to adhere to the guidelines. We're used to thinking that it won't happen to us, that this will be a small incident, but that's not the reality we're preparing for. We must be prepared for other scenarios like in Italy and Spain."
Health Ministry Public Health Services head Professor Sigal Sadecki said: "We're in a difficult, complex, ongoing, and dynamic incident.
"On the subject of the labs, a lot of people are upset about 'why don't they do for me a test.' We have discussions with the best minds frequently. Tests are important tools but aren't treatment of the disease. Treatment is isolation. Tests are important but limited."