Israel is gearing up to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus as, at the time of this writing, five people have died from it and over 2,000 people have been diagnosed with it. The new health regulations imposed by the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 5 p.m. on Wednesday will tighten restrictions on the free travel of people. Israelis will be permitted to walk within a 100-meter radius of their home address to purchase food and get other needed things, public transportation will be limited to cabs with one passenger in them.
Interior Minister Gilad Erdan instructed police on Wednesday to pay special attention to families known to have a history or concerns about possible abuse and to visit them to ensure women are not harmed during the massive changes the country is going through due to COVID-19.
The new guidelines will be translated into Arabic, Amharic and Russian by the police to ensure all citizens are able to follow them.
The minister also said that, eventually, 3,600 IDF soldiers will work alongside police to enforce them. On Wednesday, this cooperation began with 650 soldiers.
The police already used drones to monitor the behavior of people and began investigations into cases when people spread fake news about the virus. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) is currently using digital monitoring means to see whom people who are infected with the virus came into touch with before they were informed they had it to enforce that these people will be under quarantine as well.
The police explained that its goal is to be present, to educate people who may not be aware of the new regulations, and see to it they are kept.
“Our goal is not to fine people as a first step,” the police reported, “we mean to explain first.”
Businesses who violate the regulations will be fined NIS 5,000 and people who, for example, go for a run on the beach might be fined NIS 500 if caught by the police.
The police admitted they have no way of knowing exactly how many meters the person they are talking with actually is in relation to his home and added that they “do not mean to chase after people with a measuring tape.”
They added that most of the public is following the new rules.