Israel, the West Bank and Gaza are dealing with a renewed coronavirus outbreak, leading to proposals and measures intended to curb its spread and mitigate the economic ramifications of the crisis by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities.
Israel currently has 68,811 active cases; 1,571 people have died. In the West Bank, there are 10,363 active cases and 315 deaths, and in Gaza 1,646 active cases and 19 deaths.
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1:15 P.M. Health ministry staffer arrested for taking bribes to get people out of quarantine
Police arrested Thursday morning a Health Ministry employee suspected of taking people off the mandatory quarantine list in exchange for bribes.
The suspect, a resident of the Negev village of Rahat in his twenties, is employed by an external company contracted by the Health Ministry to staff call centers. Israelis can call these support centers if they received a message from the ministry saying that they were in proximity to a coronavirus patient and must quarantine for 14 days, and want to appeal the message if they believe it was sent by mistake.
The suspect worked at one of these call centers, and received monetary bribes from a number of people who wished to appeal their quarantine. In exchange, he erased their names from the list, and the people were able to return to their daily routines, including contact with others.
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