Home Front chief: Few ill Bnei Brak residents have answered call to leave

The government has arranged special care facilities for Bnei Brak residents with coronavirus to curb the spread of the disease, but many have not answered a call to evacuate the city.

The IDF’s Home Front Command, which is handling civil affairs in the city, assesses several hundred known virus patients are still in the city. (Throughout the country many patients with mild symptoms are told to remain in quarantine at home due to limited hospital capacity.)

Home Front Command chief Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai tells reporters: “We won’t do anything with force… I hope we get all the sick out of Bnei Brak.”

He notes that some families have eight or 10 children that need to be cared for. “The efforts are ongoing but it’s not a rousing success so far,” he says. However, “We won’t arrest people.”