Israel seems to be on its way to beating the COVID-19 virus after a lockdown of more than one and a half months.
As of this writing, 15.808 Israelis have been infected with the virus and 237 people died of it while 10.223 Israeli citizens have recovered from the disease.
The relatively low number of coronavirus deaths was attributed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the stringent limitations his cabinet ordered early in the outbreak, and first and foremost, to the conduct of the Israeli public that generally speaking adhered to the government restrictions.
Netanyahu said during a long press conference on Monday evening that the health system in Israel, despite being a relative small one compared to other Western countries, had also greatly contributed to the success in the campaign against the coronavirus.
A number of Israeli hospitals have already closed their special coronavirus wards due to the absence of new cases.
On Tuesday, only 31 new coronavirus cases were reported over the prior 24 hours and the number continues to go down every day.
Netanyahu compared the situation in Israel to European countries such as Belgium and Sweden where thousands of people have died while having a similar number of citizens as does Israel (almost 9.3 million people).
It was clear that he blamed that on the liberal anti-Corona regime in those countries while Israel was in a complete lock-down.
There are, however, several other reasons explaining why Israel stands out in the fight against the cooronavirus.
First, Israel was able to isolate itself completely from the outside world due to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Flights to Israel were almost completely halted and the country closed its borders with Egypt and Jordan, thereby preventing new coronavirus cases from coming in from abroad.
Israelis returning from abroad were, after some refused to accept a voluntary lockdown, forced into a two-week isolation in so-called coronavirus hotels and couldn’t infect others.
Foreign ships docking in Israeli ports were ordered not to allow their crews to disembark from the vessels and port workers were asked not to enter these ships.
Another measure that contributed to Israel’s success in fighting the coronavirus pandemic was the careful isolation of the elderly in the Jewish state. That way, Israel was able to protect its senior citizens who were at significantly high risk during the outbreak, while the IDF, municipal and government agencies as well as volunteers saw to their food and medicines when necessary.
Only at the beginning of this week, could families reunite with their grandparents while still observing restricting measures to protect them during the often emotional reunions.
Then there is the fact that the Israeli population is used to crises such as wars and other emergencies. People are used to spending long days in security rooms and public shelters and always find innovative ways to connect with the outside world to keep up their spirits.
Another reason for Israel’s success in fighting the pandemic was the fact that it enlisted its military for beating the coronavirus.
IDF soldiers not only manned checkpoints at the entrances of cities and neighborhoods or distributed food packages but also used their skills to build ventilators and air filters that monitor air pressure and filter pollution from a room in order to ventilate COVID-19 patients.
The IDF’s technological unit 81, furthermore, produced protective face masks and developed “special shields and separate air conditioning systems in approximately 50 ambulances, to enable drivers to evacuate COVID-19 patients without endangering themselves.”
The Israeli army also helped to produce test kits for the detection of new coronavirus patients and manufactured information management software for the coronavirus Testing Lab.
Even the Israeli intelligence services shifted their focus from gathering intelligence on terrorist groups and enemy states and used their skills in the united national effort to get rid of the COVID-19 virus.
The Mossad brought protective gear and ventilators to Israel while the internal secret service Shin Bet used technology which it normally uses to track the movements of terrorists for tracking down the movements of Corona patients.
Then there were the Israeli start-ups and companies that produce innovative technology, they too helped to find innovative solutions in the battle against the coronavirus.
Take, for example, Ben Gurion University’s Department of Desalination & Water Treatment that succeeded in developing a method that analyzes sewage for the presence of COVID-19 in human feces.
“The operators of wastewater treatment plants are sampling and keeping it in refrigerators for us. We collect it, we freeze it at minus 80 degrees Celsius and then do the tests in a lab,” Oded Nir, a scientist at Ben Gurion University, said.
The innovative method enables Israel to prevent a second wave of Corona cases by detecting neighborhoods and cities that have new COVID-19 cases early on.
Israeli start-up Aura Air, furthermore, developed a new filter that cleans 99 percent of the air of viruses. The filter has already been tested in the United States and has now been installed in Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, one of the best hospitals in the world, according to Time Magazine.
Israeli companies are also working around the clock to develop medicines and a vaccine against COVID-19.
Gilead Sciences, a Hod HaSharon based company is working on a medicine against COVID-19 that shortens the time that Corona patients are ill by at least 30 percent.
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug that originally had been developed to treat the Ebola virus was still in the trial phase of use against COVID-19, but was approved for emergency use only by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the United States last week.
Because the drug is still in the trial phase, it is too early to celebrate, Gilead Sciences says, but initial results show that Corona patients were able to leave the hospital four days earlier than people who didn’t receive the medicine and spend an average of 15 days in hospital.
“This was lightning speed in terms of getting something approved,” FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn said while adding that the introduction of Remdevisir in the battle against COVID-19 was “an important clinical advance.”
The Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), a governmental research institute, publicized that it has determined an antibody that neutralizes the coronavirus (SARS-COV-2), the Defense Ministry announced Tuesday evening.
The Galilee Research Institute MIGAL is, it says, close to the production of a vaccine against Corona.
MIGAL had been working on the vaccine for four years and initially intended to use it against a bronchial virus in poultry. but changed course as soon as the pandemic began.
“Our basic concept was to develop the technology and not specifically a vaccine for this kind or that kind of virus,” said Dr. Chen Katz, the manager of MIGAL’s biotechnology group, said.
“The scientific framework for the vaccine is based on a new protein expression vector, which forms and secretes a chimeric soluble protein that delivers the viral antigen into mucosal tissues by self-activated endocytosis, causing the body to form antibodies against the virus,” according to the MIGAL scientist.
The vaccine is expected to be ready in a few weeks, but has to be tested in trials. The Israeli Health Ministry could, however, follow the example of the FDA and order a shorter track for testing the vaccine.