What’s a lockdown? Israel never had the sort of lockdown that Wuhan or Lombardy saw, where people were banned from leaving the house for all but essential reasons. Apart from the week of Passover, offices remained open, albeit with occupancy limits for larger companies. There were no restrictions on how many times a week people […]
Israel and Covid-19: State of play 12 September
This post isn’t about the Israeli Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s not about lockdowns and curfews. It’s just summing up where we are now. One Israeli in 400 was diagnosed with Covid-19 last week 22,870 new Covid-19 cases were diagnosed between Saturday the 5th and Friday the 11th of September. That works out […]
Big rise in Covid among teenage boys. Why?
Israel is now seeing about 3,500 new Covid-19 cases a day. This is partly due to increased testing (45,000 tests yesterday, a genuinely impressive number) but test positivity is still very high, so it’s pretty clear that the increase also represents a real rise in actual infections too. There are more cases in every age […]
Israel’s corona-groundhog-day
After a while the stories all become so similar that they blur together. Covid-19 infection rates rise. The Health Ministry (or coronavirus czar, or NSC head, or even the prime minister) plan measures to stop the spread of the disease. The measures are announced or briefed to the public. It becomes clear that these measures […]
Red Zones Don’t Work in a Country the Size of New Jersey
Last week, I wanted a day of outside fun, so I went to the beach in Tel Aviv. A few years ago, when a family friend passed away, I paid a shiva call in Bnei Brak. The great thing about living in a country the size of New Jersey, is that it’s relatively easy to […]