Saturday, April 18, 2020
From Ian:
Israel’s death toll rises to 164 with 13 new fatalities Saturday
Israel’s death toll rises to 164 with 13 new fatalities Saturday
Israel’s coronavirus death toll climbed to 164, with 13 confirmed fatalities by Saturday evening.Tel Aviv hospital spares rare protective gear to allow visits to dying relatives
There were 149 new virus cases, bringing the country’s infection figures to 13,256, with 164 in serious condition and 113 of those on ventilators. The number of people in moderate condition was at 145, while 3,456 Israelis have recovered.
Saturday’s fatalities included two residents of nursing homes, bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths at elderly living centers to 61, Hebrew media reported, nearly 40 percent of all deaths in the country.
The Health Ministry said Saturday it had tested 9,950 people for the virus on Friday. On Thursday a record 11,908 coronavirus tests were carried out. Test numbers have been hovering at around 7,000-10,000 a day over the past week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he hopes to get to 30,000 tests a day, though that goal seems far off.
Increased testing is seen as vital to being able to slowly reopen the economy and ease social distancing restrictions on the population.
Officials have blamed shortages in test components on their difficulty in raising test numbers.
Efforts to hit the target received a boost with the Foreign Ministry saying it had signed a deal with Chinese company BGI that will see the firm send lab equipment to Israel by the end of next week, allowing a significant increase to the number of daily tests.
In addition, a ministerial committee on Friday decided to declare the Arab Israeli communities of Deir al-Asad and Bi’ina as “restricted areas” amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak there.
The two adjacent towns in northern Israel, which are a single municipality, were locked down Saturday morning for seven days.
Elisheva Stern wasn’t ready to say goodbye to her ailing father, who was succumbing to the coronavirus in an Israeli hospital.PM declares eased lockdown: ‘We’re starting to release personal, economic space’
But knowing countless others around the world are not given the chance to say their last farewells to sick relatives, she decided to enter the virus ward and be by her father’s bedside, even if only for a brief moment, before he died.
Stern’s father, Simha Benshai, 75, died at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center, which offers the next of kin of dying coronavirus patients the rare opportunity to say goodbye in person.
“None of us want to say bye to the people who we love. But I’m actually happy that they gave me the opportunity to say bye to my father,” said Stern. “I was able to see him and to tell him I’m sorry and I love him.”
The practice is in contrast to many hospitals around the world that don’t allow final family visits as a precaution against spreading the highly contagious virus. That leaves patients to die alone and forces families to grieve from afar.
Recognizing this peculiar tragedy wrought by the virus, Sourasky Medical Center officials opted to spare much-needed protective gear, take careful measures to ward off infection and offer grieving families a chance to say goodbye.
“The stories of patients dying alone are horrifying,” said Ronni Gamzu, the hospital’s chief executive. “This is our moral duty as medical staff and as human beings. No one shall be allowed to die alone.”
The hospital provides immediate next of kin who want to visit a patient with head-to-toe protective wear — gear in demand around the world and often reserved for health care workers — and allows them about 15 minutes to say goodbye. It then assists them in removing the mask, cap, robe, gloves and boots with the utmost caution needed to prevent infection.
In a press conference with leaders of the health and economic sectors, Netanyahu said Israel’s mortality rates were among the lowest in OECD countries, while its testing numbers were among the highest.
“Until today we took measures to restrict movement… to reduce the number of people at work… to track confirmed cases,” he said. “These measures have proven themselves… these positive results enable us to ease the restrictions gradually.”
However, he and other officials warned that the success of the new phase of managing the crisis was wholly dependent on the public continuing to behave responsibly and to take all precautions to avoid spreading the virus.
Netanyahu said the situation would be reassessed in two weeks’ time and if the situation continued to improve there would be a further easing of restrictions, but if there is another outbreak they would be reimposed.
Netanyahu set out the general steps now to be introduced:
1. Raising the proportion of workers allowed at their workplaces from 15% to 30%;
2. Allowing high-tech and certain other workplaces to return more of their workforce;
3. Introducing a new “Purple Seal” certification which workplaces will have to adhere to in order to operate — certification will not require outside approval by any state body but will be mandatory. It will include demands for face masks, daily temperature checks for all employees and regular sterilization of surfaces;
4. Reopening some stores — including those selling electrical goods, household goods, opticians, and others — limited to two clients at any one time, and stipulating that a physical buffer must be installed at registers. Malls and markets will remain closed;
5. Prioritizing staffing of government offices that assist the private sector;
6. Restarting special education programs for groups of up to three children, and allowing kids from three families to be looked after by a single day-carer;
7. Adjusting and increasing public transportation as appropriate;
8. Allowing sports in fixed pairs, up to 500 meters from home;
9. Allowing outdoor prayers of up to 10 — “a minyan” — with two meters between worshipers, wearing masks;
10. Introducing a plan to deal strategically with elderly care homes and facilities, which have been particularly hard hit by the virus.
