MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2020) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet of ministers on Monday that the coronavirus case fatality rate in Israel had recently plateaued but remained among the highest in the world.
"The level of morbidity in Israel is among the highest in the world. This is the bad news. The good news is that over the past approximately two weeks, we have been on a plateau," Netanyahu said, according to a transcript on the government website.
The prime minister went on to set out tasks that must be tackled immediately, as schools are preparing to open for the new school year.
"...In September, we are due to start the school year. These things join together in the major task of lowering the morbidity curve while building a capability for cutting the chain of infection. These are our two major tasks," Netanyahu said, according to the meeting minutes.
Netanyahu also warned that their "situation will be very difficult," as cutting the chains of transmission while thousands of new cases are registered daily is no easy feat.
As many as 68 people died from COVID-19 complications last week, the highest on record, Netanyahu lamented, saying that the fatalities could reach high numbers.
Israel initially appeared to have quelled the spread of the virus, which began in late March and April. After falling to a few dozen daily new cases in May, the number of reported infections began to exponentially increase in July, as has become the case in many nations.
Israel's official tally now stands at 73,231 infections, with 541 deaths and over 47,000 recoveries.
