Dozens of people who attended a soccer match at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium last week were ordered to immediately self-quarantine after it emerged a teenager infected with coronavirus was among a crowd of away fans, the Health Ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
The teenager has tested positive for COVID-19 after contracting the virus from a manager of a toy store in central Israel where he worked. The manager of the "Red Pirate" store in Or Yehuda returned from a trip to Italy last week and attended work for three days, unaware of the illness, before being admitted to a hospital. The manager's wife, another store employee and a customer have all tested positive for the virus.
The match attended by the ninth-grade teen was a derby between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv that took place on February 24. The teen reportedly sat in the stadium's Gate 8 section, in rows 43-49.
Health officials initially issued a directive ordering the all those who sat in Gate 8 section - which houses 5,000 people - during the match to enter a home quarantine, but following mass panic and a plethora of phone calls to the Health Ministry that crashed the help line entirely, the authorities decided to limit the number of those who must be isolated.
The Health Ministry instructed them to enter a home quarantine until March 8 (two weeks from the date of the match) and report to the ministry online or via a phone call to the help center.
"Nobody chose to get infected,” said the worried mother of the infected teen. “Anyone who wants to blame [her son] can blame him, we're not at fault," she said.
The mother said her son has a stuffy nose and a cough but doesn’t have a fever. “He is currently in isolation in his room and hasn’t been in contact with the rest of the household [since testing positive]."
In addition, the ministry ordered all 1,150 students and staff at a school in Brenner Regional Council, attended by the infected teenager, to self-quarantine until March 12.
The second patient who also contracted the virus at the store is a deputy school principal in the city of Kiryat Ono in central Israel. She and 27 of her students were also ordered to self-quarantine.
“I went to look for a Purim costume for my son and my life has since changed,” she told Ynet. “I’m currently trying to digest the situation.”
Two of the 15 Israelis who contracted the virus since the start of the outbreak have since have fully recovered. The rest are currently in the dedicated quarantine area at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv.
First published: 13:34, 03.04.20