"The fantasy that every person who gets up in the morning with a sore throat will be tested is neither applicable nor required."
A senior health ministry official on the staff for the treatment of epidemics, Dr. Tal Brosh Nissimov, estimated in an interview with Kalman Liebskind and Asaf Lieberman on Kan Reshet Bet that the restrictions on the movement of citizens within the public sphere would continue until summer, in hopes that the weather will do its job.
"The purpose of this big drama in the country is the low likelihood of stopping the outbreak. But this is a hope that will probably not come true. The practical goal is to allow us to treat patients well, that we have enough machines and staff enough to care for everyone and not have to sort out whom we treat from whom we don’t," he explained.
"A good thing that can happen is that the whole world gets behind efforts, then there is a chance that the epidemic will stop. The plan right now is to allow us to prevent mass deaths of people because they could not be treated. We hope the summer will bring a decline in the epidemic. I estimate the restrictions will be in place until summer. Restrictions in some form or another will continue for a long time," the doctor added.
Dr. Nissimov referred to the number of tests done so far for Israeli citizens, saying: "What matters is not how many tests are performed. The purpose is not examining, finding and diagnosing all coronavirus patients in the State of Israel. The Ministry of Health is conducting surveys, there are enough tests for that."
Dr. Nissimov also added that "The fantasy that every person who gets up in the morning with a sore throat will be tested is neither applicable nor required. If someone has coronavirus he will sit at home and recover. Anyone who is seriously ill will be treated at a hospital. The tests are just one of many tools."
