The Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak: The Israeli Experience

Mohammad Yasser Sabbah

doi:10.20883/medical.413

Authors

Mohammad Yasser Sabbah Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9451-1893

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20883/medical.413

Keywords:

COVID-19, Coronavirus, World Health Organization, worldwide spread, infection, disease

Abstract

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-COV) and Sever Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-COV). The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) refers to the cluster of viral pneumonia cases which first started occurring in Wuhan city, which has a population of 11 million people and is the largest city in Hubei province in central China, since December 2019. On Tuesday, the 11th of February 2020, the WHO officially named the disease caused by the new coronavirus "COVID-19", with more than 43,000 patients, and more than 1,000 deaths cases were reported in China. The Government of Israel, the Prime Minister's Office in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defense and the Treasury, have decided to take early first steps to prevent the spread of the virus in the Country. The first step was banning Chinese tourists from entering the country via Ben-Gurion International Airport, and this was only the beginning, as afterwards the decision was made to close all border crossings. The idea was to reduce the number of entrances to the State of Israel as much as possible, and every citizen coming back from countries such as China and European countries was directly sent to home quarantine for a period of 14 days.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Coronavirus. https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus. Accessed 2020 March 6.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). https://www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/severe_respiratory_disease_leaflet_en.pdf. Accessed 2020 March 4.

Zou L, Ruan F, Huang M, Liang L, Huang H, Hong Z, Yu J, Kang M, Song Y, Xia J, Guo Q, Song T, He J, Yen H, Peiris M, Wu J. SARS-CoV-2 Viral Load in Upper Respiratory Specimens of Infected Patients. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020 03 19;382(12):1177-1179. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc2001737

Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, Wang X, Zhou L, Tong Y, Ren R, Leung KS, Lau EH, Wong JY, Xing X, Xiang N, Wu Y, Li C, Chen Q, Li D, Liu T, Zhao J, Liu M, Tu W, Chen C, Jin L, Yang R, Wang Q, Zhou S, Wang R, Liu H, Luo Y, Liu Y, Shao G, Li H, Tao Z, Yang Y, Deng Z, Liu B, Ma Z, Zhang Y, Shi G, Lam TT, Wu JT, Gao GF, Cowling BJ, Yang B, Leung GM, Feng Z. Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel Coronavirus–Infected Pneumonia. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020 03 26;382(13):1199-1207. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa2001316

Chan JF, Yuan S, Kok K, To KK, Chu H, Yang J, Xing F, Liu J, Yip CC, Poon RW, Tsoi H, Lo SK, Chan K, Poon VK, Chan W, Ip JD, Cai J, Cheng VC, Chen H, Hui CK, Yuen K. A familial cluster of pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus indicating person-to-person transmission: a study of a family cluster. The Lancet. 2020 02;395(10223):514-523. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30154-9

Juan D. Wuhan wet market closes amid pneumonia outbreak. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202001/01/WS5e0c6a49a310cf3e35581e30.html. Accessed 2020 January 1.

Corman VM, Landt O, Kaiser M, Molenkamp R, Meijer A, Chu DK, Bleicker T, Brünink S, Schneider J, Schmidt ML, Mulders DG, Haagmans BL, van der Veer B, van den Brink S, Wijsman L, Goderski G, Romette J, Ellis J, Zambon M, Peiris M, Goossens H, Reusken C, Koopmans MP, Drosten C. Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR. Eurosurveillance. 2020 01 23;25(3). https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.es.2020.25.3.2000045

Lu X, Zhang L, Du H, Zhang J, Li YY, Qu J, Zhang W, Wang Y, Bao S, Li Y, Wu C, Liu H, Liu D, Shao J, Peng X, Yang Y, Liu Z, Xiang Y, Zhang F, Silva RM, Pinkerton KE, Shen K, Xiao H, Xu S, Wong GW. SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020 04 23;382(17):1663-1665. https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmc2005073

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html. Accessed 2020 March 13.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). How COVID-19 spreads. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/transmission.html. Accessed 2020 March 4.

Knight V, Heredia CH. Planes, Trains and Automobiles: What does a deep clean mean?. Scientific American. 2020 Mar 17;

Pleasance C. Half of the infected coronavirus passengers on board Diamond Princess cruise ship had NO symptoms. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8109829/Half-infected-coronavirus-passengers-board-Diamond-Princess-cruise-ship-NO-symptoms.html. Accessed 2020 March 13.

Coronavirus outbreak. https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/online/sciencenews/התפרצות-הקורונה-עדכונים-חרונים. Accessed 2020 March 31.

Palestinian PM Orders West Bank Lockdown; More Than 1,000 Coronavirus Cases in Israel. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/dozens-of-new-york-hasidic-jews-in-coronavirus-quarantine-after-arriving-in-israel-1.8689682. Accessed 2020 March 22.

Poland Reports First Coronavirus Case - Health Minister. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-03-04/poland-reports-first-coronavirus-case-health-minister. Accessed 2020 April 3.

Pacjentka "nie była za granicą, nie miała kontaktu z osobą z podejrzeniem lub rozpoznaniem" zakażenia. https://tvn24.pl/polska/koronawirus-w-polsce-no-

we-przypadki-zakazenia-4328168. Accessed 2020 March 9.

Prime Minister: We must maintain social distancing for the sake of the fight against the coronavirus. https://www.premier.gov.pl/en/news/news/prime-minister-we-must-maintain-social-distancing-for-the-sake-of-the-fight-against-the.html. Accessed 2020 March 31.

Number of new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases confirmed in Poland in 2020, by date of report. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102374/poland-coronavirus-covid-19-new-cases-by-report/. Accessed 2020 April 2.

Number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases worldwide as of May 28, 2020, by country. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1043366/novel-coronavirus-2019ncov-cases-worldwide-by-country/. Accessed 2020 April 3.

Ministry of Health: Guidelines for the Suspicion of Chinese Virus Issues. https://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-5664783,00.html. Accessed 2020 January 23.

Cross-border Protocol - Coping with the corona virus's new disease. https://www.health.gov.il/Subjects/disease/corona/Documents/coronavirus_med_guidelines.pdf. Accessed 2020 January 30.

The new novel coronavirus. https://www.health.gov.il/Subjects/disease/corona/Pages/default.aspx. Accessed 2020 March 4.

Home Insulation Guidelines. https://www.health.gov.il/Subjects/disease/corona/Pages/default.aspx?2702-9#home_quarantine_guidance. Accessed 2020 February 1.

Emergency regulations (new novel coronavirus-activity restrictions). https://www.gov.il/he/General/corona_official. Accessed 2020 March 20.

Israel Ranked 1st in the Covid-19 Health Safety Countries Ranking on the Deep Knowledge Group Website. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/spoke_ranking310320. Accessed 2020 March 31.

Coronavirus Health Safety Countries Ranking. Coronavirus Health Safety Countries Ranking. Accessed 2020 April 2.