Coronavirus panel head says much more can be done before lockdown

MK Yifat Shasha-Biton, head of the Knesset coronavirus committee reviewing government approved-restrictions, defends her panel’s role in second-guessing government moves and says that a lockdown, which has been increasingly threatened, is not yet necessary.

“It’s okay to disagree and argue. It’s not clear that a full lockdown is the right move,” she says.

“There is a lot we can do before we decree a lockdown on citizens,” Sasha-Biton says. “The question is not if we are remaining open, but rather how and under what conditions.”

“We will take restriction after restriction, examine each one point by point according to the data on it, and then we will decide,” she says.

Health Ministry deputy director Itamar Grotto tells the committee that a weekend-only lockdown approved by the government can clamp down on infections by some 20 percent.

He says closed spaces and those where wearing a mask is impossible, like restaurants, are the main infection zones.

“The whole world put restrictions on restaurant activity, and anyplace where there was a rise in morbidity, the restaurants were closed again. The current morbidity level requires that even places abiding by Purple Seal [hygiene] standards be shut.”