A police report has been filed against an unidentified man who disguised himself as a doctor to offer what no other doctor in the world has yet to offer: coronavirus testing over the phone.
The man, who presented himself as Dr. Natan Har, advertised his services in a haredi newspaper in Israel, according to Channel 12. The man offered to diagnose people over the phone for the price of NIS 50.
The man was exposed after a female Health Ministry representative called him on the phone and posed as a client. He asked her for her name, and requested that she cough for him. After hearing her cough he told her, "Yes, I'm sorry to tell you that you have the virus."
After receiving her diagnosis, the ministry representative offered for the man to diagnose her son. The exchange started with the son claiming that he "felt good," but ended with the man diagnosing the son with the virus after requesting that he cough over the phone as well.
When the ministry representative showed up at the man's door under the guise of paying him, the man requested from her NIS 250 in exchange for two diagnoses. At that point, however, the Health Ministry's enforcement and inspection division exposed the man as impersonating a doctor.
The ministry addressed the man, and asked him if he realized that this "wasn't right," to which the man answered that he wouldn't do it again. "I was only giving advice," he added.
He said that his lawyer told him that he could present himself as a doctor, like Dr. Gav, an Israeli company that uses doctor in their name to sell back-support furniture.
Dr. Roni Berkowitz, director-general of the ministry's enforcement division, said that a police report had been fired against the man, adding that "the Health Ministry is taking this matter very seriously."