Teachers union chief calls for schools to be closed to halt spread of virus

Secretary-general of the Israel Teachers’ Union Yaffa Ben-David demands that all schools be closed, the Ynet website reports.

“I call on the prime minister to show national responsibility to public health, including the country’s students, the educators and their families in order to stop the spread of the virus and the next victims,” she writes in a message sent to education workers.

Directing her remarks at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she appeals for him to close all education institutes, kindergartens and schools.

Teachers have raised concerns over their exposure to hundreds of students every day, the report says.

Also today, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says that it will start the second semester of the year a week late and that all studies for its over 20,000 students would be done remotely through video streaming, starting March 22.

In a statement the university says the postponement in opening the semester, which had been scheduled to start next week, was in order to implement the distance learning system at its two campuses in Givat Ram and Mount Scopus.

— Stuart Winer