No parks, playgrounds or pools: Israel Health ministry issues still tighter restrictions

Health Ministry issues new orders to keep Israelis out of parks, playgrounds, and gyms.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Israel’s Ministry of Health tightened the restrictions on movement Tuesday in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus infections by keeping Israelis from congregating outdoors, with a senior health official saying a general closure is being discussed.

“Do not leave home for playgrounds, the beach, pool, libraries, museums, nature reserves and parks or other public spaces,” the ministry said in a statement released to the public.

Health officials found that with the education system shut down, thousands of Israelis were quickly getting cabin fever and getting out of the house to take their children to the local park or go for a workout at the gym.

The new guidelines emphasized that exercise classes were banned, no matter how few the participants.

“It could be in any place you go out to there will be somebody who will infect you,” Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar-Simantov said in a video released online. “It could be that you are sick and you still don’t know it and you might infect other people,” he said, adding that success in getting through the crisis depended greatly on the public’s behavior as well as on the health ministry.

The Ministry of Transportation also announced new restrictions with public transportation to be halted at 10 PM Tuesday evening and 8 PM on Wednesday, Kann radio news reported. On Thursday buses and trains will stop at 8 PM with no public transportation on Friday and on Saturday – the Jewish sabbath day – resuming Sunday morning for the start of the work week in Israel.

Health ministry Deputy Director Prof. Itamar Grotto said the health ministry clashed with the finance ministry over the issue of a general closure that would force everything except essential industry to shut down and impose a curfew to keep all citizens at home, Ynet reported.

“There is real debate, I think we need to make conditions tougher,” Grotto said, adding it was a good sign that the public accepted the current restrictions to close schools and send only skeleton staff to companies, but tighter restrictions were needed to stop the spread of the virus.

“In my opinion on the workplace side and also regarding the behavior of the population we are not there yet and people are still leaving the house too much,” he said.

As the coronavirus spread in China earlier this year, the Ministry of Health recognized early on that the infections would spread to Israel and began mobilizing efforts to deal with an epidemic even before infected airline passengers were discovered, but only after they had already landed in Israel.

The government has imposed increasingly tougher restrictions and quarantines to try and stop the spread, with health officials increasing their calls to impose a total shutdown on the country.