Israel’s health ministry continues to release a steady stream of information to the public, giving the dates, times and locations of the places that known carriers have visited.
By World Israel News Staff
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Israel rose to 126 Friday, with the Ministry of Health announcing 2,497 health workers, including 1,174 hospital workers, were now in mandatory quarantine.
The ministry also revealed that 949 doctors and 635 nurses were among the medical staff in mandatory quarantine under which any person who may have been exposed to the virus must isolate themselves at home for two weeks.
Israel has roughly 45,000 nurses and 28,000 doctors with an average of 3.1 physicians per thousand people, slightly below the 3.5 average for countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
There are no reports of any staff shortages affecting health care. The quarantined health workers include paramedics and other employees of the Magen David Adom nation-wide ambulance service, geriatric care workers, lab technicians, pharmacists, social workers, physiotherapists, and hundreds of administrative workers and and community staff.
In a major move to reduce the spread of the virus, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday ordered schools and universities to close until at least the end of the Passover holiday when the situation will be assessed in mid-April.
“I ask you, citizens of Israel, to change your routine to deal with the Corona virus,” Netanyahu said in a nationally televised broadcast calling on citizens to avoid shaking hands, keep their distance from others and take personal hygiene seriously.
Netanyahu said the drastic steps, similar to those taken in other countries like Italy and France, were needed because the potential for a deaths from the virus are “very high.”
The health ministry continued to release a steady stream of information to the public, giving the dates, times and locations of the places that known carriers had been to – including flight information for those who had been abroad – so that the public could check if they had been near an infected person and put themselves into home quarantine.
There was some good new Friday, as the condition of the bus driver who had caught the virus from a group of infected tourists from Greece, was upgraded from “serious” to “moderate.”
“He is currently breathing on his own,” said Dr. Hagar Mizrahi, director of the Poria Hospital in Tiberias. “He is still receiving supportive treatment including, of course, treatment for the coronavirus.”
The hospital also announced that there was an improvement in the condition of an unnamed 70-year-old female American tourist from Arizona, who was admitted and found to be infected with the virus while her husband tested negative.
Before the school closures, Israel had imposed a series of strict measures to block the spread of the virus, including a mandatory two-week self-quarantine for all Israelis returning from abroad, and limiting gatherings to only 100 people which forced sports teams to play games with no fans.
As infected Israelis returned from countries like Italy and Spain where the virus was spreading rapidly, the government imposed a total ban on foreign visitors to Israel unless they could show they had a home to stay in for the mandatory two-week isolation.
以色列卫生部继续向公众发布稳定的信息流，其中提供了已知携带者去过的地方的日期，时间和位置。
以色列世界新闻社
以色列周五已确诊的冠状病毒病例增加至126例，卫生部宣布2 497名卫生工作者，包括1,174名医院工作者，目前正在强制隔离。
卫生部还透露，有949名医生和635名护士属于强制隔离区的医务人员，根据这些隔离区，任何可能接触该病毒的人都必须在家中隔离两个星期。
以色列大约有45,000名护士和28,000名医生，每千人平均有3.1位医生，略低于经济合作与发展组织（OECD）所属国家的3.5位平均水平。
没有关于人员短缺影响卫生保健的报告。隔离的卫生工作者包括Magen David Adom全国救护车服务的护理人员和其他雇员，老年护理工作者，实验室技术员，药剂师，社会工作者，物理治疗师以及数百名行政工作者和社区工作人员。
为了减少该病毒的传播，总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡（Benjamin Netanyahu）政府周四命令学校和大学关闭，直到至少逾越节假期结束，届时将在4月中旬评估情况。
内塔尼亚胡在全国电视转播中说：“我请以色列公民改变你的常规，以应对电晕病毒。”他呼吁公民避免握手，与他人保持距离并认真对待个人卫生。
内塔尼亚胡说，需要采取与意大利和法国等其他国家类似的严厉措施，因为这种病毒死亡的可能性“很高”。
卫生部继续向公众发布稳定的信息流，提供已知承运人去过的地方的日期，时间和位置，包括针对出国人员的航班信息，以便公众可以检查他们是否曾经在一个被感染的人附近，并把自己送到家庭隔离区。
新的星期五有些好转，因为从希腊一群受感染的游客那里抓到病毒的公共汽车司机的病情从“严重”升级为“中度”。
提比里亚波利亚医院主任哈加尔·米兹拉希（Hagar Mizrahi）博士说：“他目前正在自主呼吸。” “他仍在接受支持治疗，当然包括冠状病毒的治疗。”
医院还宣布，一名来自亚利桑那州的不愿透露姓名的70岁女性美国游客的病情有所改善，她的丈夫被检测为阴性，但被录取并被发现感染了该病毒。