During the lengthy meeting that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened on Monday regarding the imposition of the new restrictions on citizens, a heated argument broke out between Moshe Bar Siman Tov, Director General of the Ministry of Health, and his deputy, Itamar Grotto, about the extent of the coronavirus infection in Israel.
According to a report by Channel 13 News’ Barak Ravid, Grotto estimated during the meeting that the true number of infections in Israel is 50 times the number that is currently known. "I estimate 50,000 patients," Grotto said.
Netanyahu was surprised by this. "I didn't understand, repeat it. What do you mean?" Netanyahu said. Grotto reiterated, "I estimate there are 50,000 patients."
At this stage, Bar Siman Tov intervened, contradicted what his deputy said and argued, "There are not 50,000 cases in Israel. We may be wrong but not by such a gap. How do we know that? Based on the number of patients in the hospitals. That is why this assessment is baseless.”
Bar Siman Tov claimed that the fact that 30 patients are on respirators indicates that the number of infections is much smaller and the percentage of severely ill patients out of all those infected is higher.
According to the report, Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman spoke out against the senior officials of his ministry and said, "I think we are in better shape. We do not need a full closure but only for those over the age of 70. We must consider further steps but not a complete closure on the population. The public has not yet gotten used to the previous steps.”