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New corona hot spot: Illegals in south Tel Aviv

The data, updated as of June 8, finds that the majority of cases are from the age of 20-49 and are located in south Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Of 129 new corona cases in Israel during the last week, 66 of them are people “without status,” meaning they are illegal aliens, reports Israel’s center for corona data run jointly by the Israeli Health Ministry and the IDF.

The data, updated as of June 8, finds that the majority of cases are from the age of 20-49 and are located in south Tel Aviv and Jaffa. South Tel Aviv is home to a large concentration of illegals from Africa, primarily from Eritrea with a smaller number from Sudan.

Israel health authorities have expressed worry previously that the illegals’ lack of access to health care and cramped living conditions could spark an outbreak of new infections. African illegals also often work in restaurant kitchens.

Corona’s spread throughout Tel Aviv also could become more likely given that city residents have lowered their guard. Masks have come off and social distancing rules are not being observed.

Ironically, in haredi cities like Bnei Barak, which in the early stages of the pandemic were slow to observe health guidelines, those rules are now being kept by the majority of the population with virtually everyone in public wearing masks.

On Monday, after a meeting of the “Corona Cabinet,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israelis the easing of restrictions would be put on ice due to the rise in cases. Rules that had already been eased would not be reversed.

Netanyahu said health officials briefed the government on the recent “very steep increase in morbidity.”

“It could be that we are already seeing the doubling of the rate of infection within 10 days. I very much hope not,” Netanyahu said.

“What we decided to do, first of all, is to hit the emergency brake,” Netanyahu said. “We stopped all of the measures to ease restrictions that we were going to apply in the coming days. We will check this again next week.”

“The main thing that all the experts emphasized is that we must keep the three rules: Wearing masks, keeping two meters’ distance and hygiene – washing hands,” Netanyahu said.