The interview with Dr. Elrai Price
(Photo: Alex Gamburg, Meshi Ben Ami)
Elrai Price added about the restrictions at Ben Gurion Airport: “There are a lot of discussions on the subject – how to bring the Israelis who are abroad home because we would like them to return of course and at the same time make sure they stay in isolation. Like everything else, we need to make sure it is safe.
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Ben Gurion Airport. The elections are approaching
(Photo: Moti Kimhi)
“We are doing everything we can to try and see how we can increase the amount of Israelis who can enter safely, whether it is vaccinated or whether they enter with some pilot of an electronic bracelet starting this week. We need to see if this thing can work and then there will be a possibility For the entry of more Israelis with isolation enforcement. ”
At the same time, Transport Minister Miri Regev said today at a briefing at Ben-Gurion Airport that the government is examining several issues with the National Security Council, one of which is the return of Israelis to the elections with government approval – so that the work of the Exceptions Committee will be redundant.
Next Sunday, March 7, the third beat of the exit from the last closure is due to take place. According to the government’s plan, this phase will include, among other things, the return of seventh- through tenth-grade students to frontal learning in schools and the opening of restaurants and cafes. Elrai Price warned this morning: “If the trend we see of the increase in the coefficient of adhesion to more than 1 – we will have to rethink. That is, it will not be possible to make wide openings.”
She added: “An attempt will be made to test how to open restaurants and cafes with as much use as the green sign. It is clear to us that there are all kinds of eateries where people stand at the entrance and we can say ‘it will open green sign’, but its applicability in the field is very low “So you have to see how you do it intelligently. Of course the goal is to open as many things as possible with a green character.”
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On the way to open the restaurants
MK Elharar Mish Atid on Ben Gurion Airport storm: Litzman and Ben Gvir run the country
(Photo: Nadav Abbes, Meshi Ben Ami)
– Will you consider opening restaurants just by sitting outside?
“That’s exactly the point, to see how we can certainly open things up but in a safer way. And we have to say here honestly, if the morbidity goes up then it is impossible to open everything we planned. We will have to make some priority, when of course the priority of education is paramount.” .
– Why not determine more significantly that what is important at the moment is what is happening in the hospitals, especially the number of patients in a difficult situation, and accordingly determine the continuation of the policy?
“At this exit we look at everything. We look at both the verified and the percentage of infection and some of the indices. The most important index is definitely the number of serious patients. What is more complex in the picture this time than in previous times is that we need to check the increase in serious morbidity. “Severe morbidity in young people, we see that this morbidity is not decreasing, also because this group is the last to get vaccinated.”
“There are still about 300,000 people in the population at risk, over the age of 50, who have not been vaccinated either. There is a tremendous operation here, there is always progress. I very much hope that this correlation between verified and critically ill is now broken. The problem is that the serious illness always follows “The increase in the verified. I very much hope that in the coming week, even if there is an increase in the verified, we will not see an increase in the seriously ill.”
– But if you look at the weekend data, we see that there are 33 inpatients under the age of 18, most of them with background illnesses. Does it seem disproportionate to you that because of such small numbers there will be another delay in opening the trade?
“But we are not just talking about patients under the age of 18. When we talk about critically ill patients in hospitals, we are talking about the 700-800 critically ill patients and not just hospitalized people under 18.”
“I’m also not sure that all the tens of thousands who were at parties everywhere are people who are really vaccinated. Even vaccinated people must continue to be with a mask and a distance because the corona is not yet behind us. I am very afraid that the mass parties would make us happy “.
Participants claim that there is real fatigue from the guidelines and restrictions.
“I understand very well, I think we are all tired in public, no one likes these restrictions. It is oppressive and it has been going on for a year, and especially when you see the light at the end of the tunnel then you already want to be at its end. But you have to understand that we are not there. We can pretty easily go back in. What we do in the Ministry of Health is to try and allow as many things as possible for vaccinated people, also because it creates a safer environment.
“Events in the green character are safer than events that are not in the green character. What we are opening is actually gatherings that are 25-30 times more than regular gatherings thanks to the green character. If everything goes smoothly, these quantities will also increase, that is the goal. The goal is to produce places that are We are safe and also encourage immunization in this way. ”
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A Purim gathering this weekend in Tel Aviv
– Do you send your children to frames?
“I have small children, at the moment I am sending them to open frames. There were moments when I did not send them because I felt the morbidity was higher than I thought allowed to open and the Ministry of Health at the time recommended not to open and it still opened so I felt unsafe to send. “With low morbidity, I think it’s safe to ship. At the moment we are not opening elsewhere, until we formulate a strategy to make sure children are tested and teachers are vaccinated.”
– But you yourself say that we do not yet know the results of the infection at a young age, that the infection there is very high naturally because they are not vaccinated. This year is already lost, why risk them?
“I do not know if this year is lost. I think that every school day and every day that the children leave the screens and every day that the children meet friends and return their social connections is also an important day. I can not say in February ‘let’s leave it, the year is already erased.’ The Ministry of Health does not proceed from such a premise.
“We try to get the children back into the frame as much as possible, but in a safe way. Not in places where we think that if we open them up there will be a very significant increase in morbidity that will endanger them and endanger their community as well.”
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Dr. Elrai Price on vaccines for children: “There is room for optimism”
(Photo: Shahar Goldstein)
– So next week there will be an opening of 7th-10th grades.
“I guess we all agree that education is a top value and we would like to get these children back into their settings as soon as possible, in places with low morbidity. We are currently reviewing the data of the morbidity so far because fifth and sixth and eleventh grades have opened “In the previous phase, and now is the time to see if we really see an increase in morbidity in these places, and according to that we will move forward.”
– When do you think it will be possible to start vaccinating children?
“This is a great question. Pfizer and Modern are working on vaccines for children, aged 12 to 15. I do not know when it will be, I guess in the coming months. I think there is a lot of room for optimism. If in less than a year the world has managed to produce a vaccine for Corona that is effective and safe “So even for children it will happen faster than it usually does.”