Likud, Blue and White ministers oppose nationwide lockdown

A Likud minister anonymously lashes out at a government proposal to reimpose a nationwide lockdown to quell the coronavirus outbreak.

“The number of new patients each day has remained more or less in the same place, and we can assume that in the coming days, it will drop, so what is this chutzpah of talking about a lockdown? It is, by definition, the destruction of the economy,” the minister in Netanyahu’s party tells Channel 12.

“We were there already… businesses are collapsing. How can anyone think it’s reasonable to talk about a lockdown again? And let’s say that there is a lockdown, in two weeks, they’ll open it all, and there will be infections again. We must teach the public how to live alongside the coronavirus. A lockdown that will reduce the infections is not a victory, it’s a capitulation,” the Likud minister is quoted saying.

A Blue and White coalition minister, who similarly speaks on condition of anonymity, echoes the sentiment.

“We have another few days to see the data and if the trend changes,” the minister says. “We must restore the public trust and a lockdown will only shatter it even more. So long as we can refrain from imposing a lockdown, we must hold back.”