Bennett announces NIS 2.5b investment in health system as COVID cases spike

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announces an investment of NIS 2.5 billion in health infrastructure in order to fight back against the ultra-contagious Delta coronavirus variant.

“Delta is conquering the world,” Bennett says in a press conference at Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. The NIS 2.5 billion is aimed at giving “a booster to the health system in Israel and the medical workers who work for our health,” says the prime minister.

“Every family who loses someone to the coronavirus is painful,” Bennett added, “and so is every person who loses his livelihood and his business because of a lockdown, and every child who sat for 200 days at home and learned only on Zoom.”

In order to “prepare for a significant increase in hospitalized COVID patients,” says Bennett, the government will hire 2,000 more doctors, nurses, hospital staff and paramedics. Those positions, says Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, will be permanent and not temporary.

The measures, says Bennett, will help Israel “buy time until the vaccination system will begin to lower the outbreak.”

Serious COVID cases in Israel topped 400 today for the first time since March.