Israel said weighing ban on public events of over 100 people, closing schools

TV report says classes would instead be held online; prisons service to empty jail, turn it into facility for housing any prisoners who become sick with coronavirus

By ToI Staff 11 March 2020, 6:23 pm

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Illustrative: Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood on March 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israel was weighing limiting public gatherings to 100 people as part of increasingly stringent measures to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, according to an Israeli television report Wednesday.

The closing of schools was also under consideration, with studies to instead be conducted online, Channel 12 news reported.

The reports came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced a press conference at 6:30 p.m. along with Health Minister Yaakov Litzman to discuss the virus.

Also Wednesday, the Israel Prisons Service announced it was preparing Saharonim Prison in the south of the country to house prisoners who contract the coronavirus.

Prisoners being held at Saharonim will be moved to other prisons in the country.

No one being held in an Israeli prison has so far tested positive for the virus, the prisons service stressed.

The prisons service also said it has prepared facilities in all three districts under its command for holding prisoners suspected of having the virus.

Illustrative: African asylum seekers leaving the Saharonim prison in southern Israel where they had been imprisoned due to their refusal to leave the country, April 15, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

On Tuesday, Israel banned public gatherings of over 2,000 people, after having earlier capped them at 5,000.

Limitations were also introduced for hospital and retirement home visits to reduce the risk to vulnerable populations like the sick and elderly.

There have so far been 77 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Israel, many of them contracted by travelers who recently returned from abroad.

People wear face masks arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport on March 11, 2020. (Flash90)

To curb the spread of the virus in the country, all Israelis returning from overseas are required to quarantine at home for 14 days. Non-Israeli nationals will be allowed into the country until Thursday at 8 p.m., but after that they will be barred entry unless they can demonstrate an ability to self-quarantine for two weeks.

The quarantine measures are among the most dramatic to be introduced by any nation in the intensifying battle against the coronavirus. On February 26, Israel had become the first country in the world to advise its citizens against all non-essential overseas travel.

Over 118,000 people have been infected worldwide with nearly 4,900 people killed by the coronavirus.