Directors of a number of hospitals and medical centers in Israel held a tense meeting on Tuesday with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, Health Ministry Director-General Professor Hezi Levy, and national coronavirus coordinator Professor Ronni Gamzu in which they warned that their COVID units were at full capacity and their medical staff were exhausted.
The directors urged the Health Ministry to recommend a nationwide lockdown to reduce the spread of the virus.
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Levy told the hospital directors that he did not believe that a two-week lockdown would be effective, and if declared, a lockdown would have to be in place for a month.
"The head of the hospital in Nazareth said the he was at full capacity and so did the director of Emek Medical Center and hospitals in Jerusalem. It was a difficult meeting," said one official who was present.
Another official said that all participants had left "with the sense that the Health Ministry wanted to hear us and wants to change the public discourse."
This past week, the number of corona patients hospitalized in serious condition has hit a new high. As of Wednesday morning, 472 of the 925 coronavirus patients in hospitals were listed in serious condition, of whom 140 were on ventilators. Another 157 were listed in moderate condition.
Deputy Director of Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod Dr. Hagit Sarbagil-Maman, who took part in the meeting, said, "All hospitals in Israel are facing the same challenges both in terms of treating the virus and in terms of treating illnesses other than coronavirus. They are all crowded and everyone spoke about the staff's exhaustion and despair at the lack of a clear plan to get us out of the crisis buck the trend of infection.
"Most of the hospital directors, regardless of their size and location in Israel, warned that we need to do a 're-set' and lower the number of cases because this past month has been key to the rise in the number of patients in serious condition, on ventilators, and in mortality, as well," Sarbagil-Maman said.
As of midnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, the death toll stood at 1,040.
A total of 3,496 new cases were identified in Israel between Tuesday and Wednesday morning by 44,454 tests.
The number of confirmed cases is doubling every 10 days, and the number of positive test results continues to climb. As of Wednesday, it stood at 8.1%.
Jerusalem is home to the largest number of confirmed cases, at 3,686. There were 1,651 cases in Bnei Brak, 1,210 in Ashdod, 877 in Modi'in Illit, 819 in Beit Shemesh, and 802 in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. A total of 2,662 confirmed carriers live in cities, towns, and local authorities not designated "red" under the Health Ministry's traffic light system.
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