Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch is calling to revive the Shin Bet security agency’s controversial tracking of coronavirus carriers, after a report said Israel has entered a second wave of coronavirus and could soon see hundreds of new deaths from COVID-19.
“The only automated tool that is immediately available to use for disrupting the infection chain is in the hands of the Shin Bet,” Kisch, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, writes on Twitter.
He adds: “Immediate action is needed for expedited legislation in the Knesset, and we should allow the use of the tool in order to save lives and minimize the economist toll on Israel.”
The Shin Bet program, which raised privacy concerns for its use of sensitive data to track people infected with coronavirus and those they’ve been around, lapsed earlier this month after ministers declined to advance legislation anchoring it in law.
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