Israel's Ministry of Health has announced that three more Israelis have been diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus. This brings to 15 the number of Israelis stricken with the virus. The three new cases found are a female soldier who works part time in the Red Pirate toy store in Or Yehuda and a customer who spent 15 minutes in the store. Both contracted the disease from the store manager who returned from northern Italy last week. The third new case is a person who returned from Italy last week but has remained in self quarantine at home. All three new cases are mild.
With the spread of the virus in western Europe, the Ministry of Health is seriously considering adding France to the list of countries from which Israeli returning will be required to undergo 14 days self-quarantine, while warning Israelis not to travel to France. There have been 212 cases in France - the sixth largest of any country worldwide - including four fatalities.
The Ministry of Health is also closely monitoring the situation in Germany and Spain where there have been 196 and 153 Covid-19 cases respectively including the first fatality in Spain. In the US there have been 100 cases and six deaths.
Restrictions remain in force on Israelis returning from China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Japan and Italy who must by law remain in self-quarantine for 14 days and report on their situation to the Ministry of Health website. At the same time the Ministry of Health has recommended that Israelis should seriously consider whether any trip abroad is necessary.
Worldwide 93,160 cases of the coronavirus have been reported including 3,203 deaths. 50,969 have recovered from the illness.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on March 4, 2020
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