Israel’s Health Ministry reported another record-breaking number of 1,168 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.

The number of active cases has risen to 21,393, with 177 in serious condition, of whom 55 are ventilated. The death toll has risen to 368.

Health Ministry officials have come to the conclusion that a second lockdown in Israel is inevitable, Channel 13 News reported on Monday night.

Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Chezy Levy said that Israel’s infection rate has risen to 6% at a press conference at the Health Ministry on Monday night. “I’m worried about the increase in numbers,” Levy said. “I’m not sure we all understand just how significant the increase has been.”

Levy said that he disagrees with the Coronavirus Committee’s decision to reopen gyms and pools and will try to limit reopenings as much as possible. According to a Channel 13 News report, Health Ministry officials are tightening the “purple badge” requirements for gyms.

Levy added that he intends to appoint someone to lead the government efforts against the coronavirus but his original choice, former head of the IDF’s Central Command Roni Numa, turned down the offer.

“We need to understand the degree of infection we’re seeing now,” Levy said. “When there was a recurrence in other countries their government ordered lockdowns but we want to avoid that.”

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the IDF has risen by 180% in the past nine days, from 203 cases on July 4 to 568 on Monday. The number of IDF soldiers, officers and civilian employees in quarantine has risen from 5,039 on July 4 to 12,130 on Monday, with over 2,000 entering quarantine in the past day.

Shin Bet tracking placed 70,051 Israelis into quarantine last week after tracking the phones of 6,321 coronavirus carriers, a Channel 12 News report said. The report added that 3,495 of the Israelis sent into quarantine by the Shin Bet were diagnosed with COVID-19 – 70% of the coronavirus cases diagnosed last week.

However, the report also said that many Israelis appealed against Shin Bet’s quarantine orders and one-quarter of the appeals were accepted, which means that thousands were erroneously sent into quarantine.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)