Israel steps up testing as coronavirus detections rise

JERUSALEM 

Confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel have jumped by 40% to 427 in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, predicting a steeper rise as mass testing is implemented.

The Internal Security Ministry said compulsory closures, enforced by police, could soon be imposed across the country.

“We will reach a situation in which there are many hundreds of new patients each day, and possibly more,” Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, the Health Ministry’s director-general, told Israel’s Army Radio.

No fatalities have been reported in Israel, but a Health Ministry document seen by Reuters, dated March 17, informed medical and funeral staff of new regulations for handling anyone who dies as a result of coronavirus infection.

These included decontaminating and hermetically wrapping bodies in double layers of polyethylene. For Jewish dead, ritual washing of the body would be conducted in one of four special stations in the country, the document showed.

Having urged Israelis to stay home and approved cyber-monitoring of their movements to reduce infection risks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at least 3,000 coronavirus tests would be conducted daily.