Netanyahu said to have turned down UK request for ventilators

Israel is currently trying to boost its own stocks and has an export ban in place that blocked sale of life-saving machines; 100 ventilators arrive from US

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down a request from UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab for respiratory ventilators last week as Boris Johnson lay in hospital in intensive care with COVID-19, Channel 13 reported Wednesday.

According to the report, several British companies tried to procure ventilators from Israel. However, due to an ordinance issued by Economy Minister Eli Cohen blocking the export of the life-saving machines from Israel, the sale did not go through.

Raab, who is in charge while UK Prime Minister Johnson is incapacitated, then called Netanyahu to ask for an exemption so that the ventilators could be provided, but the prime minister told him that Israel needed them for itself, Channel 13 said.

The UK has been one of the hardest hit countries. As of Tuesday, the government reported a total of 12,107 virus-related deaths across the UK.

Johnson, who was hospitalized in a serious condition in intensive care, has since left hospital.

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks from 10 Downing Street praising NHS staff in a video message, after he was discharged from hospital a week after being admitted with persistent coronavirus symptoms, in London, April 12, 2020. (Pippa Fowles/10 Downing Street via AP)

The report also claimed that a Spanish request for ventilators was turned down by Foreign Minister Israel Katz even though 30 of the machines had been ordered by Spanish companies prior to the ban on exports.

Israel had some 3,000 ventilators when the outbreak occurred, although many of them were already in use with non-Covid-19 related illnesses.

Health ministry officials warned that Israel needed to prepare itself for a situation where it would need 5,000 ventilators and Israel has continued to work to increase its stockpile.

One hundred respiratory ventilators purchased by the Defense Ministry from the United States arrive at Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday.

The respirators were transported from the West Coast to Defense Ministry warehouses in New York before being sent to Israel on a cargo flight, the Ynet news site reported.

There are currently 133 coronavirus patients on respiratory ventilation in Israel.

Israel has also continued to work to increase its supply of other medical equipment to fight the pandemic. Earlier Wednesday a plane carrying enough chemical reagents to conduct some 100,000 PCR coronavirus tests and some 50,000 personal protective suits for medical staff arrived in Israel from South Korea.

Crews load chemical reagents and protective suits onto an El Al plane in South Korea on April 8, 2020. (Defense Ministry)

The national death toll rose to 131 Wednesday evening with six more deaths throughout the day. The number of infection cases rose by some 300 cases to stand at 12,501 — 180 people were in serious condition with 133 of them on ventilators, another 174 were in moderate condition while the vast majority displayed mild symptoms.

The Health Ministry also announced that Israel in the past two days had for the first time surpassed 10,000 coronavirus tests a day. Monday saw 10,401 tests carried out, while the total reached a high of 11,501 Tuesday. The goal of 10,000 tests a day was achieved weeks after its initial target date due to equipment shortages.