Ministry said mulling lockdown in Beitar Ilit

The Health Ministry is reportedly mulling placing a closure on the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Ilit.

The settlement of some 56,000 people has seen 157 new cases of the coronavirus in the past seven days, more than anywhere else apart from the larger cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Ashdod and Petah Tikva.

According to Ynet, the ministry informed Mayor Meir Rubinstein that closure of the settlement was under discussion. However, Rubinstein protested that such a move would be untenable without a plan in place to evacuate and house virus carriers.

It will “only intensify infection rates of the city and turn it into an incubator. The decision shows the terrible failure in dealing with the second wave,” he said.