Netanyahu says no lockdown for now, but ‘if it is needed we will do it’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tours Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital and says Israel won’t impose a lockdown even though the COVID-19 morbidity rate remains among the highest in the world per capita.

“No country with our infection rate didn’t impose lockdowns, but we are aware of the socio-economic situation,” Netanyahu tells reporters.

“Over the next two weeks we will make efforts to lower the rate with other means, and if everyone wears masks, I have no doubt we’ll succeed,” he adds.

“We are trying to avoid [a lockdown], but of course if it is needed we will do it,” he says, adding that unlike after the first lockdown, this time there will be a robust contact-tracing mechanism prepared by the army, that the PM says will be ready in a month and is designed to stop the infection chains.