Lockdown Not Working As Expected

Israeli medical experts were said on Tuesday to be stymied by the failure of the current lockdown to reduce the coronavirus infection rate.

The Health Ministry reported that 74 more people died from Covid-19 on Monday, bringing the total pandemic deaths to 4,501 as of Tuesday evening. 8,600 new cases were diagnosed on Monday.

According to a Channel 12 News report, health officials had anticipated that the morbidity rate would be much further down after two weeks of nationwide closures of schools, businesses, social and cultural gatherings.

Officials are pessimistic about lifting the restrictions as things now stand.

Also on Tuesday, Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of the Health Ministry’s public health department, strayed into the diplomatic arena, telling hospital directors that “in two weeks of peace [with the UAE] more people died than in 70 years of war,” according to Channel 13.

The network commented it may have been meant “half-jokingly.” From the beginning of December, 906 Israelis who returned from the UAE were diagnosed with coronavirus, leading to a total of 4,050 cases, including many cases of the more infectious UK variant.