The Israeli government may reimpose tough restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus if Israelis fail to adhere to social distancing requirements, warned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Thursday.
Speaking at a special ceremony marking the departure of the director-general of Israel’s Health Ministry, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, Netanyahu said that the government would take no further steps at this time to reopen the Israeli economy, following the spike in the number of coronavirus infections over the past two weeks.
“We have stopped the reopening of the economy,” said Netanyahu. “We’ll work to make sure that we flatten the curve.”
Netanyahu added that if the public fails to alter its behavior and adhere to social distancing restrictions, the government may impose “firm measures” to combat the pandemic.
“We will take necessary steps to make sure that the spike [in infections] is halted, and that includes imposing partial closures, and the public will be forced to change its behavior.”
Israel’s daily coronavirus infection rate soared in recent days to nearly 300 new confirmed cases a day on Thursday, with 299 reports of new infections over a 24-hour period.
A day earlier, Israel reported 258 new cases of the coronavirus.
This two-day surge in new reported cases comes following a marked decline in the daily infection rate, which had previously risen to as high as 257 early in June, before falling back down to 83 on Sunday.
This latest spike marks the highest daily infection rate since April 23rd, when 305 cases were reported over a 24-hour period. The highest-recorded daily infection rate was 765 cases in a single day, reported on April 2nd.