Bnei Brak evacuates 67 virus carriers to stadium, then to isolation hotels
Midnight operation comes as Israel struggles to contain infections in densely populated ultra-Orthodox city; sick to be quarantined in special hotels catering to religious needs
At least 67 people carrying the coronavirus were evacuated from Bnei Brak overnight Tuesday and taken to a stadium in Ramat Gan, from which they were to be dispersed to special isolation hotels set up by the Defense Ministry.
The late night move came with Israel struggling to contain the outbreak in the majority ultra-Orthodox city east of Tel Aviv, which has the highest infection rate in the country.
Magen David Adom medics in protective gear took the sick away in ambulances to the stadium, where the IDF Home Front Command has set up a command center. From there most will go to the Nir Etzion hotel just south of Haifa, which has been especially adapted to accommodate the religious needs of the ultra-Orthodox population, Channel 12 reported.
In total, four quarantine hotels for the ultra-Orthodox are planned, the report said.
Officials are looking at ways to reduce the outbreak in Bnei Brak where one in three residents, or 34 percent, who have been tested for the coronavirus have been found to carry it.The high percentage of positive tests reported Tuesday by the Health Ministry compares to 6% in Tel Aviv and 10% in Jerusalem.
As of Tuesday the city had 571 cases, the second highest of any city in the country behind Jerusalem, which had 650, despite having less than a quarter of the residents of the capital.
Police on Tuesday set up checkpoints around Bnei Brak and were checking IDs of anyone trying to enter, as the government moved toward placing a cordon around the city of nearly 200,000.
Police were reportedly allowing many drivers to pass through but in the case of non-residents, they were checking what business the arrivals had in the densely populated city, and were ensuring none of those passing through were meant to be in self-quarantine.
The checkpoints were also designed to make sure multiple passengers were not in the cars, in keeping with Health Ministry guidelines, and to make sure residents were aware of the city’s precarious situation, according to Channel 12 news.
Authorities have upped enforcement of social distancing regulations in Bnei Brak and other ultra-Orthodox areas, where some have flouted rules against congregating or leaving home for non-essential reasons.
Earlier, Channel 12 reported the Health Ministry was close to imposing a closure on Bnei Brak and had already prepared an injunction to go ahead with the move.
According to the report, the injunction states that residents of the town will only be allowed out of their homes “to purchase food, medicines and essential items, within the closed area; to seek medical assistance, even if it is outside of the closed area.” Employees of essential industries will be allowed to leave the restricted area to go to and return from work, the report said.
Most cabinet ministers back putting a cordon on the city, but the National Security Council was opposed, arguing it was impossible to implement and could make Bnei Brak’s ultra-Orthodox residents adhere less to directives, the Kan public broadcaster reported Tuesday.
Bnei Brak’s mayor warned Tuesday evening against making his city into a prison or “a ghetto.”
Mayor Avraham Rubinstein said, “We cannot build a new prison: Bnei Brak Prison. Reality won’t enable it. Residents won’t be able to live it down. We cannot turn Bnei Brak into a ghetto.”
The cabinet instead decided to increase the number of police in the city and up enforcement of the emergency ordinances, the report said.
On Monday, Channel 12 reported that Health Minister Yaakov Litzman wants police to control the entrances and exits from Bnei Brak, and to provide food and essential products to residents to keep them at home.
Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman-Tov confirmed that the issue had been raised in a conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Ministry representatives.
“We are preparing for such scenarios,” he told Channel 12. “It requires intense involvement by the Home Front Command and the police — I believe we will see progress on the matter during the course of the day.”
The reports followed several instances of ultra-Orthodox residents of Bnei Brak flouting Health Ministry regulations intended to curb the spread of the virus, among them an open-air wedding and a funeral, both attended by hundreds of people.
Similar incidents have occurred in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
Bnei Brak is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with 198,863 residents crammed in, at a rate of over 27,000 people per square kilometer, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The overwhelming majority of Bnei Brak residents are ultra-Orthodox, including members of some hardline sects who have resisted government directives shutting synagogues, schools, and houses of study. Some rabbinical leaders initially dismissed the panic over the virus, but most have since urged their followers to adhere to Health Ministry rules.
A 90-year-old man and a man in his 70s died Tuesday from the novel coronavirus, bringing the number of deaths in Israel to 20, as the number of sick rose to 5,358.
The 90-year-old died at Wolfson Medical Center after being sedated and connected to a respirator, officials there said.
Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, where the second man had been treated, said he had a number of preexisting conditions. There was no immediate information on his identity.
They were the fourth and fifth people to die Tuesday from the virus.
According to the latest Health Ministry figures Tuesday evening, there have been 5,358 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Israel, a rise of 663 cases since the previous evening.
That included 94 people in serious condition, of whom 76 were attached to ventilators, the ministry said. Another 105 people were in moderate condition, 224 patients had recovered, and the rest had mild symptoms.