Outgoing coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu once again spent Saturday visiting Arab towns and calling on residents to cease holding weddings against regulations and to be tested. He also said he believes that the defense establishment should be involved in stopping large Arab-Israeli weddings from taking place over the Green Line.
Gamzu visited Barta'a, a village divided between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and Kafr Kara, which is located not far from Haifa in northern Israel.
Gamzu said there is too much interchange between Arab-Israelis and the Palestinian-controlled territories, which are also plagued with high infection rates. He said that in the coming days he expects that Israeli citizens will be banned from entering areas A and B, as the rate of infection in Arab-Israeli society continues to spike and is higher than in the rest of the country.
"We will consider closing the crossings if there is no other solution," he said during his visit to Kafr Kara.
Ayman Saif - the head of the fight against the coronavirus in the Arab sector - said that 6% of Arab-Israelis screened for coronavirus test positive, compared to 2% in the rest of society. Almost all red authorities in Israel are Arab.
On Friday, the Ministerial Committee for Declaring Restricted Zones approved locking down the Arab town of Buq'ata beginning Nov. 7 at 8 a.m. until Nov. 12 at 8 a.m.
The day before, the committee extended the closure on he Arab town of Majdal Shams until Nov. 10 at 6 p.m. It also declared the Arab town of Masada a restricted zone for five days until Nov. 11 at 8 a.m.
The ultra-Orthodox town of Hatzor HaGlilit has also been named a restricted zone beginning Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. until Nov. 13 at the same time.
Saif noted how on Friday some 5,000 people attended the funeral of a local leader in Baqa al-Gharbiyye and that “the results will be seen in a few days.” He said that despite the individual being well-known and respected, such a large funeral was not required.
“Arab society must control itself,” said Gamzu. “You should hold off on the weddings, because there is no way to hold them without more funerals." He also said, “the Arab customs that I love, the coronavirus also loves and they have become dangerous to our health. We cannot continue to deny the existence of coronavirus and behave as usual.”
Gamzu on Saturday also said that the country was also evaluating if it could legally require all educational staff to be screened for coronavirus. "It is not simple to mandate such a thing because it is a medical test and we do not generally mandate medical things," Gamzu said. As grades four and five and 11 and 12 are expected to return to school in the coming weeks - though likely not on Nov. 15 as originally planned - the Education and Health ministries have stressed the importance of teachers being tested. The ministries said they would establish mobile testing facilities to travel between schools. Finally, he noted that he believes a vaccine against the novel coronavirus could be available within six months.
Gamzu and Saif were accompanied on Saturday by Prof. Nachman Ash, who will be replacing Gamzu in his role as coronavirus commissioner in a week.