Health Ministry Director-General and coronavirus czar Professor Nachman Ash on Monday morning spoke with 103 FM Radio about the renewed coronavirus outbreak and what it might mean for the future.
"Yesterday there were 422 new cases, which for Sundays represents a rise," he told 103 FM. "Yesterday there were nine new serious cases, that's also a number that rose slightly. We are continuing the upwards trend, still with small numbers. For us as professionals that's disturbing. We are looking forwards and we want to see a trend of things stabilizing, and we don't yet see that. If this continues then we will reach the higher numbers that we're worried about. We don't want there to be a lot of new infections."
When asked if the outbreak can be stopped in its tracks, Ash said, "That's a big challenge as of right now. We, according to the government's decision, are taking an approach of 'soft brakes,' using all means without enacting restrictions in order to reduce infections. That has a limited ability, and it really depends on the public's cooperation. So long as we see an upwards trend, I can't say it's under control. We would like to see more people coming to get vaccinated. We brought more doses, the vaccine really is the solution to this situation. But because of the Delta variant, we need a lot more people vaccinated."
He added that "the 200,000 doses that we received and managed to obtain from Pfizer are not to be taken for granted, and were not agreed on previously. The data that we gave regarding the end of the time to get vaccinated was absolutely true at the time. We have continuously said that we are making efforts to obtain more doses, and we succeeded. The moment we succeeded, we needed to announce it, but there wasn't a trick to encourage people to vaccinate. There was one day when there was a break, and today we are starting again. I assume it will take time to get things moving."
"What Pfizer wants doesn't interest us," Prof. Ash emphasized. "We care only about the health of Israel's residents."
Regarding the possibility that Israel will impose restrictions to prevent a larger outbreak, he said: "The Coronavirus Cabinet's decision was to follow the number of serious cases, and that number is low."
"We are looking for things that will not limit activities but that will make them safer. We don't recommend capsules in schools at the moment, but it depends on the infection rate at the time."