Litzman, Bar Siman Tov spar over how the country handled coronavirus
In the last 24 hours, only 22 new patients were diagnosed with coronavirus. There were 3,114 patients, among them 42 who are ventilated. So far, 276 people have died.
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMANA press conference on coronavrus held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Health Minister Ya'acov Litzman and Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov(photo credit: Courtesy)
The former health minister and outgoing director-general of his ministry have started a spat over how well the country has handled the novel coronavirus – and the role that each of them played in determining how Israel would fight COVID-19.Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov told the Hebrew website Ynet that he believes “all along we worked wisely” to combat the novel coronavirus.His comments came the morning after Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman spoke on Israel radio and said that he never agreed with Bar Siman Tov that there could be 10,000 Israelis who died from COVID-19 – so much so that he “shouted during a cabinet meeting” that he disagreed.Litzman said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fed off Bar Siman Tov’s fears and acted accordingly.However, a report by N12 on Monday night revealed that there was no record of Litzman contradicting Bar Siman Tov during a meeting, nor were his latest statements in align with remarks made during the height of the virus.Ministers told N12 that, “Whether he felt Bar Siman Tov exaggerated or not, or whether there was shouting, why would Litzman have approved a lockdown on Bnei Brak and even defend it to his own community? Litzman allowed Bar Siman Tov to be the main actor.”The outgoing director-general told Ynet that he respects the health minister, who he has worked with for the last five years. Bar Siman Tov announced his resignation last week and Litzman has been moved to head the Construction and Housing Ministry.When asked by Ynet if in hindsight he thinks that Israel’s response was exaggerated, Bar Siman Tov responded that, “I prefer to be wise going forward and not looking back. Look at what is happening in Jewish communities around the world – in New York, France… Israel is a dense and small country and I think we should be very proud of this achievement, while still being very careful and not falling into the trap of complacency.”LAST WEEK, Hadassah CEO Zev Rotstein told The Jerusalem Post that in the early stages of COVID-19, Bar Siman Tov was operating on a simplistic model for the spread of the pandemic, which was based on international data and led him to believe that the country would see crazy numbers of sick and dead. He said the first models did not consider the median age of Israeli citizens (around 30) or the warm climate, two factors that could have heavily influenced the spread of corona.“This frightened and paralyzed everyone and caused panic,” Rotstein said, adding that when Bar Siman Tov was presented with alternatives by medical professionals, scientists and mathematicians, he was too stubborn to budge.
However, in an interview with the Israeli radio station Kan on Monday, he said that he did not believe that Litzman felt differently than his director-general.“When Litzman says there was an exaggeration, then he probably got that information from other people. But if he thought so in real time, why didn’t he stand up and say so in public?”At the ministerial replacement ceremony on Monday, where Litzman handed over the office to Yuli Edelstein, he admitted that Israel had “special results” and that no one could deny the low level of sick and dead people.In the last 24 hours, only 22 new patients have been diagnosed with coronavirus. There were 3,114 patients, among them 42 who are ventilated. So far, 276 people have died.However, it should be noted that while the number of new patients per day has declined, so have the number of people being tested. Only 4,347 people were screened in the last 24 hours. The number of tests has declined from its peak of more than 13,000 per day to 7,527 on May 12 and only 1,521 on May 16.Despite the low numbers, some children will still not attend school for the rest of the week – even though they just started going back on Sunday or Monday.Many school districts are calling on parents to not send their kids to class. The decision is not because of coronavirus, but because the heatwave – in combination with Health and Education ministries restrictions that require some students to learn outside and all students to wear masks – will make learning too challenging and could put children at risk.Israel may be facing its longest and most extreme heatwave ever recorded this week, with temperatures expected to sit consistently around 104°F (40°C) for a period of six days.The Education Ministry released a set of guidelines for schools to keep children safe in such hot weather, such as to stay in an air-conditioned space, drink plenty of water and refrain from taking part in physical activities. However, with the new restrictions, following both sets of guidelines is something that many schools say they just cannot do.Districts ranging from Rishon Lezion, Herzliya, Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan have all said that district heads can decide if they want to open schools.
