Lab technician working on coronavirus vaccine
Lab technician working on coronavirus vaccineReuters

The IDF and the Home Front Command have succeeded in reducing coronavirus morbidity rates in 'orange' and 'red' cities which have seen significant outbreaks, the Defense Ministry announced Thursday afternoon.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued instructions to expand the measures which have proved successful. "What we did a month and a half ago is to take the missions, and ignore the debate over authority. The results we were able to achieve in each of the places of intervention, isolation, increasing the spread of information and bringing it to the regional level, has made significant changes. This policy must be expanded and it will reduce the need for restrictions and closures."

The program included five efforts carried out by the defense establishment, the IDF Command, the Home Front, local authorities and in cooperation with the Ministries of Health and Finance: including giving priority in allocating places in coronavirus hotels, providing assistance to the authorities in transportation to the hotels, providing dedicated budgets for the spread of information related to the coronavirus and public measures to fight the disease such as how to effectively self-isolate, and providing assistance to infected patients who could not be evacuated to a coronavirus hotel.

As a result of these measures, six red cities were upgraded to yellow status and seven more were upgraded to orange status. In addition, two cities were upgraded from orange status to yellow status, and one city was upgraded from red all the way to green.

The defense ministry's measures will be implemented as part of Coronavirus Czar Prof. Roni Gamzu's national project to combat the disease, which will begin on September 1.