An Over-reaction?

[charlie hebdo]

daveklepper

I don't believe that I am being political by stating that most of us agree neither Netenyahuh here in Israel nor Trump in the USA handled this problem 100% right from the start regardless of one's opinion of current actions.  Be glad you are in the USA or Canada and not in France. The hospital train scheme is a reat necessity there.  I received a message that originated at Gatestone, seems truthfull, wish to share it but not post it and traced to the URL:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15880/coronavirus-france-disaster

Your comments are welcome.

 

Any article that refers to this pandemic as the "Chinese Communist Party virus" is an example of ignorance and/or political propaganda at its worst. 

You should stop posting such stuff. 

Additionally,  many more than 2-3 members have asked you to stop already with the logorrhea. If you don't know how to summarize,  just post the link as long as it is not to a paywalled or advertisement-loaded article.  If you want a personal blog,  start one.  There are many apps to do so.  Google it. 

[Overmod]

Euclid

What would handling the problem 100% correctly consist of?

Setting up the complex of 'standing' pandemic-response teams and organizations that should have been in place decades ago.

Now, with rapid sequencing, near-pervasive electronic communication, and vast cloud-based computational and storage resources, much of what used to require months and months of carefully-coordinated work can now be done effectively in... well, in the three days it took the Chinese to sequence the virus, and the subsequent 9 to 10 days it took the CDC to design and DFM the initial viral-particle test modality.

 Unfortunately, all the science and technological capability in the world can't make up for shortsightedness, political and other expediency, and to a lesser extent overspecialization coupled with the wrong sort of appeals to authority.  We're now seeing chapter 17 or so of the fribbling with the current discussion of masks and what they are 'supposed' to do, which even a cursory understanding of mechanical filtration will substantially expose.

Fortunately, this can be like the lifeboat 'controversy' concerning Titanic, which worked out by far for the best ... when your Britannic goes down much harder and faster later.  Bill Gates and others are correct, I think, in expecting far greater catastrophe perhaps sooner than later, and it is ridiculous to think even that the economy can be crashed over a wretched lack of foresight ... let alone the suffering and death that is being 'tolerated' because a wide range of the experts in effective control of the situation are dropping their respective balls.  The folks in basic and applied science appear to have been doing many, if not all, the 'necessary' jobs quite competently.

[daveklepper]

Listening to the advice of the best experts who have demonstrated competence and doing the best possible to follow their recommendations.

And thank you for asking the question.

[Euclid]

daveklepper

I don't believe that I am being political by stating that most of us agree neither Netenyahuh here in Israel nor Trump in the USA handled this problem 100% right from the start regardless of one's opinion of current actions. 

 

What would handling the problem 100% correctly consist of?

[daveklepper]

I don't believe that I am being political by stating that most of us agree neither Netenyahuh here in Israel nor Trump in the USA handled this problem 100% right from the start regardless of one's opinion of current actions.  Be glad you are in the USA or Canada and not in France. The hospital train scheme is a reat necessity there.  I received a message that originated at Gatestone, seems truthfull, wish to share it but not post it and traced to the URL:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15880/coronavirus-france-disaster

Your comments are welcome.

[daveklepper]

The previous abreviated article is timely because of the following, also edited for brevity:

The coronavirus survival rate on ventilators is disturbingly low, perhaps as low as 20%, according to Dr. Mehmet Oz.

"Ventilators have become a big concern," Dr. Oz told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y., saying it is not about a shortage as much as a medical debate they might be endangering COVID-19 patients who need them. "When we use them — as we've used them for pneumonia — it might not be the best service for patients.  "One of the things the COVID-19 does is that it hurts our ability to carry oxygen in our blood," he added to host John Catsimatidis. "That same process damages the lining of our lungs. What we really want is oxygen, not pressure, blasting through the lungs, which sometimes can hurt the lungs.  That is perhaps one of the reasons why the survival rate in intubated patients, people with breathing tubes and ventilators, has been so poor."

80% of COVID-19 patients who go on ventilators do not survive, according to findingss quoted by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  "In my hospital, New York Presbyterian, we're getting about a 50% survival rate, which is significantly better than what Gov. [Cuomo] had quoted as a 20% survival rate," Dr. Oz said.

[daveklepper]

My email address is [e-mail]

Edited for conciseness from Jerusalem Post, website www.jpost.com

Israeli company Pluristem created a placenta-based cell-therapy that helps patients survive and improves respiratory parameters. After trials on animals, patients suffering from acute respiratory failure and inflammatory complications were treated at three different Israeli medical centers for one week under the country’s compassionate use program and all survived. Four of the patients had demonstrated failure of other organ systems, including cardiovascular and kidney failure. Four showed improvement in respiratory parameters with three in the advanced stages of weaning from ventilators, and two with preexisting medical conditions showing clinical recovery in addition to the respiratory improvement.

Pluristem CEO and president Yaky Yanay: “Pluristem is dedicated to using its competitive advantages in large-scale manufacturing to potentially deliver PLX cells to a large number of patients in significant need.”

The company will apply to multiple nations to begin clinical trials, including the FDA in the United States with whon Pluristem is already talking to “define our clinical strategy for COVID-19.”

The PLX cells are “allogeneic mesenchymal-like cells  having immunomodulatory properties.” They harness our own immune system’s regulatory T cells and M2 macrophages to prevent overactivation of the immune system, helping to avoid the symptoms of pneumonia and pneumonitis from becoming fatal.

 

[Euclid]

Euclid

Dave,

I read the first part of the article you posted.  You had chosen to omit that first part when you quoted the article.  I find that omitted content to be quite interesting and do not see a problem if you do choose to post it.  The following are my thoughts about that first part of the link:

The first part of the article proposes a suggestion for addressing and solving the virus problem by the use of universal testing and contact tracing, apparently on continuing basis of monitoring everyone in the country. 

This suggested solution has not been implemented or tried by those suggesting it, but they imply that the current Administration is negligent for not implementing it.  Yet there is no indication that the Administration has ruled it out.  That implication in the article is that the Administration is not doing the right thing and is doing the wrong thing by wanting to restart the economy.  

But the suggestion of widespread testing and contact tracing does not preclude the option of restarting the economy.  They are not mutually exclusive as the article implies.  Certainly we cannot move ahead and complete the system for national testing and contact tracing prior to restarting the economy.  That would leave the economy shut down for years while massive work of developing the new system of testing and tracing is implemented.  I would like to see the price tag for the suggested new system of testing/tracing.  It may be that our economy is simply incapable of servicing the debt on the funding needed for such a revolutionary and comprehensive federal system.   

The link to the article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/10/contact-tracing-coronavirus-strategy/ 

 

Dave,

I don't quite understand what you are saying about my review of the first part of the Washington Post article.  Above is what I said after you had said you omitted the first part because you considered it to be political.  When you red my review, how did your opinion about the article change? 

[n012944]

daveklepper

So my answer should simply be:   So don't read my posts.

 

Yep.  That all that is needed here.

[daveklepper]

I appreciated the review and critique of the first half of the Washington Post article, which made me review and modifiy my immediate approval of it.

My current practise is and will be to do the kind of editing that resulted in my posting the Satuday tally on the state of the illness in Israel.  One reason I overcame my first thoughts not to post anymore is that Israel is giving statistics, that I believe reliable, on those recovered.  Who else is?

And my reading of McFarlain's post was that I should not post on the website period.  His condemnation did not appear to me to be restricted to this thread.

So my answer should simply be:   So don't read my posts.

[Overmod]

York1

Convicted One

So you are copying stories from behind a paywall, and pasting  them here?

I think what he is saying is that he doesn't like reading someone's post with just a link to an article, and then trying to access the link, can't get the article.  I think he wants to avoid that.

I don't think he means that.  If I understood him correctly, his problem came when he was done reading the post and wanted to see the 'source reference'.

Surely there is a sensible medium between long, probably technically illegal pasting of copyrighted and paywalled content on the one hand, and pasting little more than cryptic links to inaccessible or potentially reader-hostile and ad-infested sites on the other.  One very useful part of that is use of the URL tags to substitute highlighted plaintext with some sort of descriptive language in place of the plain hotlinked URL code -- I see this is working this morning.  Another is to use the quote tool or tags 'correctly' to take FAIR USE REFERENCES from the article text(s) and paste them in correctly (perhaps with their own inline references still 'live') and then intersperse a few comments, even if they are only a few words each, on the importance of what the 'quote' contains.

One very, very significant (at least to me) thing this helps with is getting rid of the great mass of objectionable or manipulative politics in many of these newsworker or propagandized accounts, stuff that does not belong in any discussions here as it's a repeatedly-mentioned violation of TOS.  Some of us are 'trained' to read critically in the presence of active 'disinformation' or trolling attempts to rile up emotions, which are often a considerable part of such articles.  But very few of us do that for 'pleasure'...

[Convicted One]

York1

I think he wants to avoid that.

If they are copied from another published source, I'd er on the side of caution and suspect it was protected material. Which you can get away with extracting small relevant chunks from under the "fair use" doctrine, and then providing a link to the full protected article. Which is all we are trying to get him to do.

[York1]

Convicted One

So you are copying stories from behind a paywall, and pasting  them here?

 

I think what he is saying is that he doesn't like reading someone's post with just a link to an article, and then trying to access the link, can't get the article.  I think he wants to avoid that.

I believe we can give a very learned and intelligent man a pass here on his posts.  If someone doesn't want to read through them, they can just click past them.

[Convicted One]

daveklepper

I still want to hear from Flintlock on this question, since this is his thread.

When I get a summary and a URL on a topic that interests me, half the time I get: Page cannot be displayed You have used up your three free articles, please subscribe on-line

 

So you are copying stories from behind a paywall, and pasting  them here?

Coincidently enough, we already have Flintlocks position on the reposting of copied, longwinded dissertations right here: 

 http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/740/t/281586.aspx?page=1

Scroll down to his reply to me on the very subject.

[Convicted One]

BaltACD

can just about assure you, nobody is wadeing through the length of the posts.  If 'you' can't develop a sentance or two summary about the article, I have my doubts that you waded through it either.

I've wondered the same thing. In one of his marathon posts last week, the same subject was reported three times, just with slightly different wording, making me wonder if he had copied and pasted from three separate  sources into one post. Without bothering to proof his own post.

On top of all that If I had 6+ different people here all asking  me "don't do that anymore" I don't think I would feel justified blaming them for being the ones who were argumentative

[GERALD L MCFARLANE JR]

daveklepper

Part of what?

 

McFarlane posted that I should cease immediately posting because nobody was reading anything I wrote anyway, and I redponded with the quote you used.  I then realized he was pulling my leg, and that was proved by the immediate response of several viewers to a posting on another thread.  I explained this already in a previous posting, but some posters keep quoting this response.

 

Part of what?   The posting for which I gave a URL?  The first half.  

Now I have to reply, was I posting in the other thread in which you refer to?  Possibly not, but when I do post in a thread I'm specifically talking in that thread and that thread only.  If I have to be specific and state I'm surprised you're still posting in the COVID-19 thread because I doubt anyone is reading your posts anymore I will, but I was not pulling your leg.  This is my last post in this thread because I'm completely sick of COVID-19 news.  I no longer care about it, it's just wasting my time...I've already been put on a rotating schedule because no one can/wants to travel.  Sweden has it right, even with all the deaths the only reason their economy will falter is because oft he remainder of the world shutting down.

[Euclid]

Dave,

I read the first part of the article you posted.  You had chosen to omit that first part when you quoted the article.  I find that omitted content to be quite interesting and do not see a problem if you do choose to post it.  The following are my thoughts about that first part of the link:

The first part of the article proposes a suggestion for addressing and solving the virus problem by the use of universal testing and contact tracing, apparently on continuing basis of monitoring everyone in the country. 

This suggested solution has not been implemented or tried by those suggesting it, but they imply that the current Administration is negligent for not implementing it.  Yet there is no indication that the Administration has ruled it out.  That implication in the article is that the Administration is not doing the right thing and is doing the wrong thing by wanting to restart the economy.  

But the suggestion of widespread testing and contact tracing does not preclude the option of restarting the economy.  They are not mutually exclusive as the article implies.  Certainly we cannot move ahead and complete the system for national testing and contact tracing prior to restarting the economy.  That would leave the economy shut down for years while massive work of developing the new system of testing and tracing is implemented.  I would like to see the price tag for the suggested new system of testing/tracing.  It may be that our economy is simply incapable of servicing the debt on the funding needed for such a revolutionary and comprehensive federal system.   

The link to the article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/10/contact-tracing-coronavirus-strategy/ 

[charlie hebdo]

David K: I'm sure an MIT grad learned how to succinctly summarize an article. These days most accomplish this with bullet points or numbers for the main points, followed by a phrase.  Of course that requires the poster to read the article using critical thinking. 

Alternatively you could cut and past the introductory paragraph of the article,  which, if well-written, would be a summary. 

[daveklepper]

Part of what?

 

McFarlane posted that I should cease immediately posting because nobody was reading anything I wrote anyway, and I redponded with the quote you used.  I then realized he was pulling my leg, and that was proved by the immediate response of several viewers to a posting on another thread.  I explained this already in a previous posting, but some posters keep quoting this response.

 

Part of what?   The posting for which I gave a URL?  The first half. 

[daveklepper]

And answering Jim Wrinn's blog:

 

Jim:

Not Amtrak but Metro North and the State of New York --- One Boss. Cuomo

Vanderbilt Avenue reserved fir the purpose

Street Level High Platforms at GCT     Riverdale also a boarding point

Commuter-car doors wide enough to ma Add Quote to your Post neuver stretchers

Hospitals available  Tarrytown, Ossining, Peelskill, Beacon. Poughkeepsie, Hudson. Albany and on to Buffalo

Can you give Cuomo a call eight now?

 

[daveklepper]

In the earlier posting, I did think about deleting the Obama statement for both possibly being political and also not really necessary for the main message.  Buit since I've been wrongly accused of being a right-wing conservative, I though I'd better leave it in or removing it might be thought of as proving the lie qs a truth.

[243129]

243129

daveklepper I will cease posting Israel's progress in controling the virus unless someone requests me to do so.

Mr. Klepper:

What part of this am I not getting?

[daveklepper]

That isn't true.  For one thing, I must look for material that violates the guidelines.

But I will try to do better to strike out anything not essential to the information that is important, as follows

Israel’s Health Ministry announced on Saturday afternoon that one person had died of COVID-19, taking Israel’s death toll to 96 from the coronavirus.

In a statement, the ministry said that 10,525 people have been confirmed infected with the coronavirus in Israel, an increase of 117 since the evening before.

Of those cases, 180 were in serious condition with 132 people on ventilators.

Another 153 people were in moderate condition, the ministry said Saturday, with the rest having mild symptoms. As of Saturday, 1,258 have recovered from the illness.

[BaltACD]

daveklepper

I still want to hear from Flintlock on this question, since this is his thread.

When I get a summary and a URL on a topic that interests me, half the time I get:

Page cannot be displayed

You have used up your three free articles, please subscribe on-line

Page timed out

No such address

If Flintlock asks me to conform to your wish I will do so.

You probably have an excellent server and your own state-of-the-art computer.  I do not. Do all other readers?  And just how could I possibly summarize the preceding posting of mine without omitting information?  Just state that Israel is testing verious treatments? Don't readers wish to know which treatments, from where, and how are they tested?

I assture you that this tijme and for the future, I did erase political stuff and photos.

Without posting just a summary  and a link - I can just about assure you, nobody is wadeing through the length of the posts.  If 'you' can't develop a sentance or two summary about the article, I have my doubts that you waded through it either.

The link gives the readers the opportunity to pursue the info - If they want to.

[daveklepper]

In recent days, dozens of leading voices have coalesced around the test-trace-quarantine framework, including former FDA commissioners for the Trump and George W. Bush administrations, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and top experts at Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Harvard universities.

On Wednesday, former president Barack Obama weighed in, tweeting, “Social distancing bends the curve and relieves some pressure … But in order to shift off current policies, the key will be a robust system of testing and monitoring — something we have yet to put in place nationwide.”

And Friday, Apple and Google unveiled a joint effort on new tools that would use smartphones to aid in contact tracing.

What remains unclear is whether this emerging plan can succeed without the backing of the federal government. Some states such as Massachusetts and Utah are already trying to implement parts of it. In the absence of federal leadership — as happened last month with stay-at-home orders — other states may watch and follow suit. But without substantial federal funding, states’ efforts will only go so far.

In South Korea, Taiwan, China and Singapore, variations on this basic strategy were implemented by their national governments, allowing them to keep the virus in check even as they reopened parts of their economy and society.

In America, testing — while still woefully behind — is ramping up. And households across the country have learned over the past month how to quarantine. But when it comes to the second pillar of the plan — the labor-intensive work of contact tracing — local health departments lack the necessary staff, money and training.

Experts and leaders in some states say remedying that weakness should be a priority and health departments should be rapidly shored up so that they are ready to act in coming weeks as infections nationwide begin to decrease. In a report released Friday, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials — which represents state health departments — estimate 100,000 additional contact tracers are needed and call for $3.6 billion in emergency funding from Congress.

The CDC is researching how to increase contact tracing capacity, its director, Robert Redfield, said Friday in an NPR interview.

“We can’t afford to have multiple community outbreaks that can spiral up into sustained community transmission,” he said in the interview.

“We have over 600 people in the field right now from CDC in all the states trying to help with this response, but we are going to have to substantially amplify that,” he said.

But those efforts have not been reviewed by the White House, and the disease agency’s role has been diminished in the administration’s pandemic response. “We’re definitely in the middle of all of that. It’s premature for me to roll it out,” Redfield said.

Technology, like the Apple-Google partnership, that could aid that effort is also being developed, but it comes with civil liberty concerns that need to be resolved.

Unless states can aggressively trace and isolate the virus, experts say, there will be new outbreaks and another round of disruptive stay-at-home orders.

“All people are talking about right now is hospital beds, ventilators, testing, testing, testing. Yes, those are important, but they are all reactive. You are dealing with the symptoms and not the virus itself,” said Tolbert Nyenswah, who led one of the most successful contact tracing efforts in Africa during the 2014 to 2016 Ebola epidemic. “You will never beat a virus like this one unless you get ahead of it. America must not just flatten the curve but get ahead of the curve.”

 

The above is half the article, and the first half is largely political.  I happen to agree with their conclusions, but would not post as against guidelines.  The URL is:

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/10/contact-tracing-coronavirus-strategy/

[daveklepper]

I still want to hear from Flintlock on this question, since this is his thread.

When I get a summary and a URL on a topic that interests me, half the time I get:

Page cannot be displayed

You have used up your three free articles, please subscribe on-line

Page timed out

No such address

If Flintlock asks me to conform to your wish I will do so.

You probably have an excellent server and your own state-of-the-art computer.  I do not. Do all other readers?  And just how could I possibly summarize the preceding posting of mine without omitting information?  Just state that Israel is testing verious treatments? Don't readers wish to know which treatments, from where, and how are they tested?

I assture you that this tijme and for the future, I did erase political stuff and photos.

 

[Miningman]

[BaltACD]

Dave - I don't need to see entire articles posted in the TRAIN'S forum.  A summary and a link will do.

[daveklepper]

After due deliberation, I decided that Flintlock and of course the Moderator due have the power to ask me not to post long but fact-filled posts instead of just URLS or URLS and a short paragraph.  I think a najority of readers still would rather have the information on the thread and not have pull up other websites.  We had the same argument on the L-Sandy-Recovery thread on the Tranit Forum.

29-year-old COVID-19 patient treated with Israel's new ‘passive vaccine’

Hospital says young man is in serious but stable condition

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN  

APRIL 11, 2020 22:14

A 29-year-old haredi (ultra-Orthodox) coronavirus patient who is being treated at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital has improved from serious to serious but stable condition, after receiving multiple doses of plasma over the weekend from a donor who recovered from coronavirus, a spokesperson for the hospital told The Jerusalem Post.

On Friday, “with the assistance of Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman and his assistant, a suitable donor, a resident of Jerusalem, was found,” explained MDA director-general Eli Bin.

 

MDA brought her in an ambulance to its blood service center before Shabbat. A special team was waiting for her and transferred the plasma units to the laboratories to perform all required tests and prepare them for transfusion.

Then, with the approval of the Health Ministry, the blood units were delivered to Assuta and given to the patient.

The man is among the country’s youngest severe patients. He has several underlying medical conditions, and has been hospitalized at Assuta for around a week-and-a-half.

The first patient who recovered from coronavirus donated plasma on April 1, according to MDA deputy director-general of blood services Prof. Eilat Shinar. Since then, some six other patients have made donations and, in the last two days, plasma units were provided to three different hospitals.

A 60-year-old being treated at Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Ya’acov also recently received plasma and his situation has likewise slightly improv

A spokesperson for MDA did not have information on the third recipient.

Shinar explained that the plasma is being used to create a “passive vaccine,” based on the assumption that those who have recovered from COVID-19 have developed special antivirus proteins or antibodies in their plasma, which could therefore help sick patients cope with the disease.

Passive immunization is when you are given those preformed antibodies. An active vaccine, in contrast, is when you are injected with a dead or weakened version of a virus that tricks your immune system into thinking that you’ve had the disease, and your immune system creates antibodies to protect you.

Currently, MDA is in the first phase of creating this vaccine, whereby the plasma is frozen and then delivered to hospitals across the country for patients to be treated by transfusion, Shinar said. In the second phase, the goal is to collect enough plasma to prepare antibody (immunoglobulin) concentrate with which patients will be treated later.

MDA has been collecting plasma for more than 30 years; thousands of volunteers donate every day. Plasma with antibodies was used to treat patients with SARS during the outbreak in 2002. In addition, Israel offered a similar treatment to patients with West Nile fever.

Before being able to donate plasma, a patient must wait 14 days from the time he or she was confirmed negative for coronavirus via two separate swab tests.

Last month, Shinar said, the FDA approved a similar protocol in the US.

 

2.4 million dosses of experimental coronavirus drug land in Israel. Netanyahu thanked Modi for making an exception in his country’s no-export rule.

By LAHAV HARKOV  

APRIL 11, 2020 21:40

Israel received essential supplies for fighting coronavirus from three different countries on Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Among the deliveries included 2.4 million doses of chloroquine, a drug usually used to treat malaria, which some have found to be helpful for coronavirus patients. The PMO did not say where the pills came from.

The PMO credited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal intervention, contacting the leaders of various countries, with bringing about the supplies’ arrival, together with the Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, who is leading the “acquisitions war room” for the coronavirus fight.

In addition, following Netanyahu’s phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a delivery arrived from India last week including tons of raw material that can be used to manufacture choroquine.

Netanyahu thanked Modi for making an exception in his country’s no-export rule.

Israel also received 2.5 tons of anesthetics from Italy and millions of pieces of protective gear from China, including masks and coveralls.

Last week, Israel became one of the first countries to receive Avigan, a Japanese drug used to treat influenza, which is thought to be helpful in treating COVID-19 in its early stages, shortening the time the patient is sick and preventing the illness from becoming more severe. The drug is to be tested on 80 patients at four hospitals across Israel.

 

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN, EYTAN HALON, LAHAV HARKOV  

APRIL 12, 2020 01:32

The number of coronavirus tests performed in Israel dropped significantly during the past week, data from the Health Ministry showed on Saturday, despite repeated government promises to boost daily checks to tens of thousands of tests.

According to official data published by the ministry, the number of tests carried out at laboratories on Thursday and Friday stood at 5,521 and 5,980, respectively. As recently as Sunday, the number of daily tests reached 9,279.

Last week, the Health Ministry said it was working towards its target of 10,000 tests per day during the Passover holiday, with government officials previously expressing their aspiration to reach 30,000 daily tests.

Explaining the decline, the ministry said it was due to a lack of reagents, a shift to domestically-produced tests and decreased willingness of the public to be tested due to Passover.

The significant drop in coronavirus testing comes amid a steadily increasing death toll, climbing to 101 as of Saturday night. To date, 10,743 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed and 175 patients are in a serious condition, including 129 requiring ventilation. A total of 1,341 patients have recovered from the virus, officially called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV).

“We are dealing with problems, like all countries, in terms of a lack of reagents and lack of swabs,” Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov told Channel 12. “Israel has the same difficulties, but is dealing with them better than other countries. We will reach 10,000 and even 20,000 daily tests.”

On Friday, the Health Ministry signed an agreement with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot to use its advanced laboratories to perform coronavirus tests. Testing is scheduled to start immediately and the labs will be able to screen approximately 1,000 people

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered all flights scheduled to land at Ben-Gurion Airport to be halted temporarily on Saturday, after nationals arriving from coronavirus hotspots since the start of Passover – notably from Newark Liberty International Airport – were discovered to have traveled home alone without supervision, rather than being immediately transported to dedicated quarantine facilities across the country.

Flights were permitted to recommence after an emergency government meeting initiated by Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich, with ministers agreeing that arrivals will be transported to government-funded “coronavirus hotels.” The Defense Ministry will now be in full control of the hotels, the government said.

“The State of Israel will not close its doors to Israelis returning home,” Smotrich said. “I thank the prime minister for making the right, moral decision. All Israelis being responsible for one another is a fundamental element of the State of Israel.”

In a statement, the Israel Airports Authority said the power to prevent entry of individuals into the country was exclusively in the hands of the Population and Immigration Authority, following a public health or court order.

Netanyahu said flights will be permitted once the government green lights an order requiring individuals to be quarantined in facilities. The order was expected to be approved during a cabinet meeting after press time overnight Saturday.

“Israel needs to stop the entry of potentially sick people arriving from abroad. The prime minister made the decision and it needs to be implemented soon,” said Bar Siman Tov, adding that every citizen that arrives will need to spend two weeks in quarantine at a coronavirus hotel.

Health Ministry data released on Saturday continued to show that haredi-dominated (ultra-Orthodox) towns and cities remained Israel’s key coronavirus battlegrounds, with Jerusalem (1,821 cases) and Bnei Brak (1,761) representing the top hotspots nationwide by some margin. Per capita, the hardest-hit locations are Bnei Brak, Efrat and Elad.

For the first time, the ministry also provided information regarding outbreaks in Arab and mixed cities and towns. Locations with the highest rate of infection per capita are Daburiya, Jisr az-Zarqa, Jerusalem (including Jewish neighborhoods), Shibli-Umm al-Ghanam and Jatt.

While existing quarantine measures applied in Bnei Brak were extended on Friday until Wednesday, April 15, government deliberations also continued on Saturday night regarding a lockdown in Jerusalem. Should quarantine measures be implemented in the capital too, movement in Jerusalem will likely be restricted in neighborhoods with high rates of infection.

The IDF, partly tasked with enforcing the lockdown in Bnei Brak, said 115 soldiers are currently diagnosed with coronavirus. A total of 2,876 soldiers are in isolation.

Other issues under consideration by the government include the treatment of the elderly in retirement homes, the evacuation of infected individuals from their homes and a more uniform policy for coronavirus testing.

To assist individuals in severe condition, Magen David Adom and the Health Ministry said on Saturday that it had started treating patients with plasma collected from individuals who recovered from the virus. Two patients have received the plasma infusion to date.

Israel also received essential supplies for fighting coronavirus from three different countries on Among the deliveries included 2.4 million doses of chloroquine, a drug usually used to treat malaria, which some have found to be helpful for coronavirus patients. The PMO did not say where the pills came from.

In addition, following Netanyahu’s phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a delivery arrived from India last week including tons of raw material that can be used to manufacture chloroquine. Netanyahu thanked Modi for making an exception in his country’s no-export rule.

Israel also received 2.5 tons of anesthetics from Italy and millions of pieces of protective gear from China, including masks and coveralls.

From Sunday at 7 a.m., all individuals above 6 years old will be required to wear a mask while outside. The order does not apply to individuals in vehicles and employees working at a safe distance from each other. Public transportation will also recommence operations in a limited format, including the Jerusalem light rail.

 

The special ministerial committee on coronavirus has approved creating “restricted zones” in Jerusalem beginning at noon on Sunday until Wednesday.

The people in these areas cannot leave unless they are going to work, getting essential medical treatment, attending the funeral of a nuclear family member or transferring their children to an ex-spouse.

In addition, they can attend legal proceedings or access other essential services with approval.

There are four districts specified by the committee, which include mostly haredi (ultra-Orthodox) communities.

The move comes after days of deliberation and protest against such a decision by Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion.

Among the areas that will now be restricted: Har Nof, Ramot, Romema, Neve Yaakov, Mea Shearim and Geula.

The only other Israeli city that has been designated a restricted zone is haredi Bnei Brak, which has more coronavirus per capita than any other Israeli city. Jerusalem has the most cases but five times as many people. However, the Health Ministry shows that the majority of Jerusalem cases were centered in specific, crowded neighborhoods.

My only comment:  Neither the Yeshiva nor my apartment are in the neighborhoods stated/

 

 

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daveklepper

I will cease posting Israel's progress in controling the virus unless someone requests me to do so.

Two posts later you are expounding on Israel.

daveklepper

Defense Ministry uses Israeli start-up to streamline coronavirus fight 'We hope that by conducting due diligence on the credibility of suppliers, and speeding up the supply chain, hospitals will be better prepared to cope with the coronavirus' By JERUSALEM POST STAFF APRIL 10, 2020 09:40

Two posts after the one above you again expound ad nauseam re Israel.

daveklepper

Israel's Health Ministry signed an agreement with the Weizmann Institute of Science on Friday to use its advanced laboratories to perform coronavirus tests. According to the ministry, testing will start immediately and screen about 1,000 people per day.The news comes as the number of coronavirus patients in Israel surged past 10,000 on Friday morning leaving 93 people dead and the government lifted some of the restrictions on most of the country.

My question is who requested that info? I saw no request between "I will cease posting Israel's progress in controling the virus unless someone requests me to do so." and"Israel's Health Ministry signed an agreement".