Despite announcing that all arrivals from the US, Italy, Spain and France would undergo testing and be sent to a quarantine hotel upon landing in Israel, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett now indicates that the plan was trashed by his superiors.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett inspects the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv, which was converted into a quarantine facility for carriers of the coronavirus on March 16, 2020. (Naftali Bennett’s Twitter account)
Asked why a group of travelers from New York who landed this afternoon were not tested or sent to hotels, Bennett tells Channel 12 that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat decided to go in a different direction and just send travelers from those countries to home quarantine.
“Not every program you want is enacted,” he says, indicating that a shortage of test kits may have been a factor.
Bennett’s office had announced the program last week as a done deal, not a proposal, and never said it had been shelved.
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From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
