Defense minister orders up fresh task force to tackle pandemic

Defense Minister Benny Gantz has ordered the military to form a “coronavirus command” to track and improve the national response to the pandemic.

This would be the country’s third task force overseeing the fight against the disease.

“This special command will work to shorten test times, improve laboratories’ processes, [and] operate a large network of epidemiological surveyors; it will ensure rapid quarantining of patients and will assess and analyze the spread of the disease in order to establish policies,” the Defense Ministry says in a statement.

Earlier this week, the ministry was tasked by the government’s coronavirus point-person, Prof. Ronni Gamzu, with performing epidemiological surveys for the country, tracking the spread of the disease by retracing the movement of confirmed carriers.

“We have to make every effort to cut off the chain of infection, to bring down the rate of disease and in that way to prevent a full national lockdown. The IDF knows how to defeat security foes and it will know how to defeat the coronavirus,” Gantz says.

The army’s coronavirus command will be formed under the IDF Home Front Command, which has led the military’s response to the pandemic.

— Judah Ari Gross