MK Naftali Bennett (Yamina) met Wednesday morning with Beitar Illit Mayor Meir Rubenstein, touring the city's emergency headquarters and meeting local businessmen.
This is Bennett's third visit to the city since the coronavirus outbreak began in March.
Following an assessment, the decision was made to immediately transfer 280 coronavirus patients to a "coronavirus hotel," within 48 hours and prior to the start of Shabbat (Sabbath).
According to Bennett, the evacuation is necessary due to the family and apartment structure in the city, which does not allow for effective quarantine at home. Parallel to the evacuations, Bennett called for "mass testing and investigations" in order to locate the other coronavirus carriers and evacuate them immediately.
"The next 48 hours will decide the fate of Beitar Illit," Bennett said. "Either the city will be 'bombarded' and cleaned of coronavirus, or control will be lost and it will turn into a 'coronavirus ship' with thousands of [people] infected."
"Those residents of the city who were infected are begging to be evacuated. Without this emergency treatment, the city will be under lockdown for a month or two - which is destructive to the residents' lives and livelihoods.
"The residents of the city of Beitar Illit are handling this amazingly and carefully, and so is the mayor, but they need immediate help from the government to evacuate [carriers]. I call on the government to act immediately, in the coming hours."