Health Ministry director: Steps we’re taking are to avoid having to shutter schools

10 March 2020, 8:20 pm

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Health Ministry General Director Moshe Bar Siman-Tov tells Channel 12 that the broad steps the government has been taking against the coronavirus outbreak are in order to prevent having to close schools throughout the country.

“This would be a very radical step that we hope won’t be necessary,” he says.

Asked if he thought the ministry has been exaggerating with the economy on the verge of collapse, Siman-Tov asserts that the lives of the elderly, in particular, are at risk.

“If we hadn’t taken these steps, the impact on the economy would be far worse… look at Italy… a country not far from us… where the outbreak has necessitated the entire country going onto lockdown,” he says.