Coronavirus czar Prof. Roni Gamzu said that imposing a national lockdown was the easy thing to do but would likely hurt the country in the long run. Gamzu said the Health Ministry would try to avoid making such a move for the foreseeable future. "The Israeli government is doing everything in its power to avoid a lockdown in the name of social sensitivity. A morbidity rate like this would have forced most countries around the world to impose a lockdown by now," he said.
"To halt the infection chain, I ask the citizens of Israel to maintain quarantine orders and make sure to arrive for virus testing. We're all responsible for reducing the infection rate," added Gamzu.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announced the appointment of Ichilov Hospital CEO, Professor Ronni Gamzu, to lead the national effort in the fight against the coronavirus crisis on Wednesday evening.
Professor Gamzu, who has many years of managerial experience in the healthcare system, also previously served as Director General of the Ministry of Health, and at the start of the coronavirus crisis established the "Protecting Fathers and Mothers" project to safeguard senior citizens.
The announcement of Gamzu's appointment came after Prof. Gabi Barbash, who was the leading candidate for the post, announced that he was giving up the appointment, likely after not being granted the necessary authority to manage the crisis.
According to data released by the Ministry of Health, 1,022 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed since midnight. There are currently 33,097 active patients in the country, 302 of them in serious condition, and a further 83 on respirators. Since the outbreak of the epidemic in Israel, 440 individuals have succumbed to virus-related complications.