Israel’s Health Ministry recorded 1,801 new coronavirus cases in the previous 24 hours as of Tuesday morning, raising the number of active cases to 25,598, with 349 people in serious conditions, of whom 97 are ventilated. The death toll has risen to 554.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on Tuesday morning that the ministry is ending the weekend lockdowns.

Edelstein said during a visit to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon that the lockdowns have not been effective in stemming the rise in infection rate and they have only served to inconvenience the public.

During a meeting of the Knesset’s coronavirus cabinet on Monday, Edelstein said that that a partial lockdown is not effective. “If we decide on a lockdown it needs to be a full lockdown.”

Another option considered at the meeting was a full lockdown for the last two weeks of August in order to allow a sufficient reduction of the infection rate to enable schools to open at the beginning of September.

The cabinet meeting ended without reaching any new decisions regarding new measures to combat the coronavirus crisis but Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Chezy Levy said on Tuesday that a complete lockdown is still a possibility.

“A lockdown can reduce morbidity but on the other hand its price is clear to all of us,” Levy said on Army Radio.

After the Health Ministry said last week that there will be a reduction of coronavirus tests, the ministry again changed its testing policy, announcing on Monday evening that anyone who has been in contact with a confirmed carrier is required to be tested even if they are not experiencing symptoms. The new regulation went into effect on Monday at midnight, which means that Israelis will see a dramatic increase in the number of tests and there will again be a 2-3 day wait until results are received.

Testing anyone who had been in contact with a confirmed carrier was the ministry’s original policy but was reversed due to the resulting overwhelming number of tests and the SOS calls of lab workers and Kupot Cholim that they could not keep up with the load.

According to a Channel 12 News report, the one responsible for the new policy is the newly hired Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, Head of the Health Ministry’s Public Health Department, who replaced. Prof. Sigal Sadetsky. She believes that testing everyone who has been in contact with confirmed carriers is the most efficient way to cut off the cycle of infection.

The IDF, which is taking responsibility for coronavirus contact tracing, appointed Brig.-Gen. Nissan Davidi to head the initiative, which is being run by the Home Front Command.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)