Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on Thursday it would be "irresponsible" to end the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown while cases continue to surge across the country.
"Stepping out [of lockdown] in the current situation would be highly irresponsible, it's something we would not be able to deal with," Edelstein said. "The lockdown is for the public's health and therefore both the government and Knesset will have to choose - either we extend the lockdown or open everything, with all everything it entails."
In a briefing with senior Health Ministry officials at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, the Likud lawmaker attributed the persistent rise in infections, the like of which was not seen in Israel's previous two lockdowns, to new variants of coronavirus that have been running rampant in recent weeks.
"The Health Ministry and healthcare system are doing everything in their power to curb morbidity, the effort is great and on all fronts," Edelstein said.
"On one hand, we're running an unprecedented vaccination campaign, the only one of its kind in the world. I myself find it hard to believe that 1.5 million Israelis have been fully vaccinated with both doses, but at the same time, we are seeing a wave of infections that is refusing to go down," he said.
The minister said that the persistently high infection rate was likely due to the new strains of the coronavirus that have been introduced into the country.
"The reason for this is probably the mutation that is running rampant," he said.
"We have been able to curb the rise in cases before, but we do not see the same decline we are used to seeing after two weeks of lockdown in previous times. Infections may have reached a plateau, and there may even be a slight dip, but it's not the same thing we are used to seeing."
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Healthcare professionals at the coronavirus ward at Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem
(Photo: Amit Shabi)
Edelstein also warned that the high number of cases was taking its toll on the healthcare system as well.
"Hospitals are in a tough spot, a situation the like of which we did not see since the beginning of the crisis," he said.
"We have more than 1,100 seriously ill coronavirus patients, hundreds of them in critical condition, being ventilated and undergoing additional treatment.
"Without a significant drop in the number of daily infections, we won’t be able to end the lockdown. I fully understand the hardships the public is going through; we are all tired, we all want to go back to work and send our children back to school."
Meanwhile, the cabinet was set to meet later Thursday to discuss a week's extension to the lockdown that was set to expire on Sunday at midnight.
Also on Thursday, the Health Ministry reported that 7,668 new coronavirus cases have been diagnosed out of some 83,000 tests conducted in the past 24 hours, putting Israel's contagion rate at 9.2%.
There are currently 1,132 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in serious condition, of which 306 are connected to ventilators.
The national COVID-19 death toll reached 4,609 fatalities after 34 Israelis passed away of coronavirus-related complications on Wednesday alone.