Middle and high school teachers call on Education Ministry to nix class

The board of high school and middle school teachers in Israel on Thursday called on the Education Ministry to immediately announce the cancellation of classes due to fears of the spread of coronavirus.

“Schools have become a breeding ground for the spread of coronavirus and [the issue] must be tackled with courage, even at the cost of grounding two million students or more,” the board said in a letter to the Health Ministry.

Such a decision by the ministry would also mean the cancellation of student festivities for the Purim holiday, which begins on Monday evening.

The teachers in their letter cited a Wednesday self-quarantine order from the Health Ministry to all 1,150 students at a high school attended by a teen who contracted the virus, plus another elementary class in a different school where a fifth-grade teacher was diagnosed with it.

Separately on Thursday, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion announced that the Jerusalem marathon, which was scheduled for March 20, will be held instead in October amid concerns over the outbreak.

In a statement, Lion said the international event will be held after the Jewish holidays in the fall, without specifying the date.

“It isn’t canceled, it’s postponed,” he clarified.

Lion also announced that the annual Purim street party in the Nahlaot neighborhood on Wednesday has been canceled. “As for the rest of the events, we will do everything to ensure they are still held — while heeding the Health Ministry directives to prevent mass gatherings,” he added.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday that Israel is on the verge of a coronavirus outbreak that it will not be able to control, as he defended the strict measures authorities have ordered on international travel to and from Israel.

Israel has banned entry to the country from a range of countries around the world, including several in Europe, and has ordered tens of thousands of Israelis who have returned from those locations to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Katz said officials have two goals in applying the restrictions — “to save lives and prevent a spread, and to prevent the isolation of Israel.”

A local outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, could see countries around the world close their borders to Israeli travelers, he explained.

Notably, the US has been left off the list of countries from which foreigners are no longer allowed entry and returning Israelis must self-quarantine, despite a spread of the disease there, including at least 11 fatalities. California on Wednesday declared a state of emergency over the situation.

Katz denied that the decision to exempt the US was politically motivated and hinted that the situation could change.

Between 50,000 and 80,000 Israelis are now reported to be in self-quarantine, foreigners from a slew of European and Asian countries have been or will be banned, and large events such as concerts and sporting matches have been canceled due to directives issued by the Health Ministry, which were significantly expanded on Wednesday.

All Israelis returning from France, Germany, Spain, Austria and Switzerland were instructed to enter self-quarantine for a period of 14 days after their last day in those countries.

The decision applied retroactively to all who have come from those nations in the last 14 days. Foreign citizens arriving from those countries will not be allowed into Israel unless they can show a proven ability to self-quarantine at a home during their stay.

Israel has taken far-reaching steps to prevent an outbreak, previously banning entry to foreigners who were in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Italy in the 14 days prior to arriving, and compelling all Israelis recently in those areas to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Israel was the first country to urge its citizens to refrain from international travel entirely because of the outbreak, which started in China in December and has since infected over 93,000 worldwide and claimed over 3,200 lives, almost all of them in China.

The Health Ministry has faced criticism for its extreme measures, with some saying it is unnecessarily panicking people and causing economic and diplomatic damage to the country. Ministry officials have said they prefer to take a strict line than be sorry later.