Following the global outbreak of coronavirus Israel has taken precautions to stop the virus from spreading; travel limitations and quarantine requirements. Israel’s Health Ministry this morning confirmed 126 cases of COVID-19 in the country.
Several of those who have been infected returned from countries with a high number of cases of the virus.
Although a bus driver remains in serious condition at a hospital in northern Israel and an airport worker is registered as serious at a Tel Aviv hospital there have been no deaths from the virus in Israel. Another three people are in moderate condition.
Israel has banned public gatherings of over 100 people, including religious events. Medical workers are also only now permitted to gather for work matters and not in groups of over 15 people.
Over 31,000 people are under self-quarantine over fears they may have been exposed to the virus.
Employers have been advised to prepare for upcoming orders that may require staff to work remotely, and shopping centres and stores are now accountable to ensure they are not congested.
It is now obligatory for Israelis returning to the country from overseas to self-quarantine for 14 days from the time of their arrival. People who have returned from over a dozen countries listed on the Health Ministry’s website must also self-quarantine for 14 days from the date of their return and anyone who returned from an international conference overseas, even if it wasn’t in a flagged country.
Beginning Thursday at 8 p.m. any non-Israeli national looking to enter the country must be able to show they can self-quarantine in agreement with Health Ministry instructions. Those who cannot will be denied entry.
The Health Ministry has advised all Israelis to avoid traveling overseas, making Israel the first country to urge its citizens to refrain from traveling abroad.
Healthcare workers have been banned from leaving the country and state employees have been advised by the Civil Service Commission not to travel overseas in an official capacity. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has also banned soldiers from traveling abroad and cancelled international exercises.
Most experts around the world have estimated that the process of developing, approving, manufacturing and distributing a working vaccine for the coronavirus will take roughly a year, if not longer.
Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, director-general of the Health Ministry, who has led the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, said he believed this one-year estimate to be correct. “My working assumption is that this cannot happen in the coming year,” he said.
In order to be best prepared for an influx in coronavirus patients, Israel’s Megan David Adom national emergency service are making changes to the way in their call centres operate. Where appropriate, call centre operators will start diverting patients to web doctors meaning they can receive full care online.
The changes that will be rolled out within the next two weeks aim to help reduce the number of patients being sent to hospitals to reduce the risk of infection. With this new system, around 1 in 3 emergency calls that would normally require hospitalisation with an ambulance will not take place, easing the burden on hospitals and ambulance drivers. This new initiative allow quarantined Israelis, who are unable to leave their house, to receive advice about coronavirus-like symptoms.
In the Times of Israel, MDA medical director, Refael Strugo called these measures “the most sophisticated model anywhere for giving emergency medicine in the community”.
Strugo has been a doctor for 30 years but said launching this new system is the most exciting thing he ever did.
Israeli scientists have also claimed that they are just a few weeks away from developing the first vaccine for coronavirus. However, it will take more than 90 days for the regulatory process to be completed and only then can the vaccine enter the marketplace.
The symptoms of COVID-19 are a fever of over 38 degrees Celsius (100.4° Fahrenheit), coughing, difficulty in breathing, or any other respiratory symptoms.
