Tu B'Av, a Jewish holiday that commemorates a number of joyous events in Jewish history, has become a sort of Valentine's Day in the State of Israel.
With the coronavirus outbreak continuing to impact daily life in the country, the Health Ministry introduced COVIDon, Cupid's 19-year-old brother from central Israel (originally from Wuhan), to help illustrate the risks of getting too close on the romantic day.
"My goal is to distance between people," explained COVIDon, showing examples of how the infection spreads.
"At 8 a.m. I uploaded a new sick person to the network, it's not even 12 p.m. and I'm already at over 3,000 shares," exclaimed COVIDon, encouraging followers to check out the responses, including "I'm suffocating," "I can't breathe" and "dying."
COVIDon explained that it's easiest for him at parties and loud places, illustrating how speaking loud and close without a mask spreads infectious droplets with two people getting to know each other at a bar. "Nice to meet you Bosmat," said one of the two, introducing themselves as patient number 30,012.
The infectious angel stressed that his biggest fear is that people will start following Health Ministry directives. COVIDon encouraged people to stay close and spread the virus.
The darkly humorous video ended with COVIDon ordering a pizza topped with half bat, half pangolin.
The Health Ministry video stressed that "routine life is in your hands," urging Israelis to wear masks, keep two meters distance from each other, follow good hygiene and avoid crowding.