180 Israeli Students Ordered Into Quarantine

Students from a school in Be’er Sheva and from a school in the Haifa neighborhood of Kiryat Haim were instructed to remain in quarantine after visiting sites, which were also visited by a South Korean group whose members were diagnosed with the coronavirus. On Wed. 12 Feb. 2020 class members from the Dagan Middle School in Kiryat Haim, along with five teachers and a security guard, visited Masada while the tourists from South Korea were there. At this stage, none of the Israelis had developed any symptoms of the coronavirus. The following day a group of students and teachers from the David Tuviyahu School in Be’er Sheva visited the Tel Sheva National Park at the same time as the South Korean tourist group. At the end of the tour, one of the teachers developed symptoms and, at the direction of the Ministry of Health, he underwent tests to detect the virus, the results of which have not yet been received. The teacher was sent to his home for isolation. The Ministry of Education said that as a result of this situation, a hotline has been opened for discussions with parents and students to be manned by experts in dealing with stress and emergency situations. In a briefing Saturday evening, 22 Feb. 2020, Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov announced that Israelis returning from South Korea and Japan would be required to self-quarantine for 14 days. Such guidelines are already in effect for those returning from China, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Macau. Over the weekend, South Korea reported 123 new confirmed coronavirus cases, taking the national tally to 556. Five people have died from the illness thus far and South Korean President Moon Jae-in has declared the highest alert level in the country due to the spread of the virus. (VFI News)

Please intercede for the protection of Israel and other Middle Eastern nations against the highly contagious coronavirus.  Countries with large populations and poor health facilities are obviously more vulnerable to the rapid spread of this latest global health threat.