Shaare Zedek Hospital President Prof. Yonatan Halevi spoke this morning on 103FM about the coronavirus.
Professor Halevi says there are two schools of thought, those who see in the rising number of carriers a catastrophe leading to a repeat of the lockdown, and those who do not share that apocalyptic vision. Halevi admits belonging to the second group.
"It doesn't seem to me that we'll reach the need for a complete lockdown like we had before Passover," Prof. Halevi added, emphasizing, however, that "preventing gatherings is needed."
According to him, "This wave does not look, up to now, like the previous wave in terms of severity. I don't think we'll reach the need for a complete closure again."
Halevi said in the previous wave the Arab population was not even discernible but now represents 40% of carriers. "Passover eve there were zero Arab patients; not even in the hospitals of eastern Jerusalem. We have the data. It means in the crowded populations in the east of the city, in Shuafat and Jabel Mukaber they are 40% and it looks like it arrived there later."