Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton (New Hope) is attacking the Ministry of Health and accusing it of inflating the number of verified cases of COVID-19 in order to accelerate the vaccination campaign.
According to a report on Channel 12 News on Thursday, Shasha-Biton has been saying in closed conversations at the Ministry of Education that "there are elements in the health system who deliberately perpetuate the hysteria and sow panic in order to speed up the children's immunization project. They inflate the number of tests and the data skyrocket."
Former Deputy Health Minister MK Yoav Kisch of the Likud said in response, "I am concerned with such a member of the Coronavirus Cabinet. So Minister Shasha-Biton, I know the health system well - no one inflates numbers. The simple truth is that we are in an initial outbreak of COVID-19 and you simply do not understand that."
Meanwhile on Thursday, Coronavirus Project Manager Prof. Nachman Ash briefed reporters following the rise in cases and called on the public to wear masks.
"We are close to returning to the obligation to wear masks in closed spaces, I recommend doing so now," he said.
"The outbreak, which began in Binyamina and Modi'in, is spreading to other places - Kfar Saba, Ramla and Herzliya and other cities. The task of all of us is to control the outbreak and reduce the morbidity to a minimum. It doesn't matter if you've been vaccinated or not," he added.
"Keeping isolation is our Achilles heel. The isolation violators are a problem for all of us. This is the way the disease is spreading now and how variants are entering the country," said Ash.