The Israeli Parliament (Knesset) voted to form a temporary “Coronavirus Committee” to address all issues relating to the treatment and spread of the 2019-nCoV Wuhan coronavirus.
Last week Israel’s Health Ministry instituted a ban on foreign travelers entering the country from China. El Al Airlines has temporarily halted direct flights to and from China as a result of the global health crisis.
Israel Sends Medical Supplies to China for Coronavirus on Last Flight Out
In addition, Israel’s IsraAID humanitarian aid NGO joined together with the Israel-China Chamber of Commerce, INNONATION, and David Ashkenazi of ICCB Capital, to send a shipment of medical supplies on the last flight from Tel Aviv to China on Monday. The supplies were sent directly to the Chinese Ministry of Health for use, the organization said.
WHO Sends Supplies Worldwide to Help Others
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile urged the health ministers of all nations to immediately upgrade their networking and data-sharing on the virus.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said he would send a team of international experts to help and work with their Chinese counterparts.
In addition, Ghebreyesus said the WHO is sending masks, gloves, respirators and nearly 18,000 isolation gowns from its warehouses to about two dozen nations that need support.
US CDC Implements Quarantine at 20 Entry Points
In response to the crisis, for the first time in half a century the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the implementation of a quarantine.
“Isolation and quarantine help protect the public by preventing exposure to people who have or may have a contagious disease,” the CDC said in a statement on its website.
“U.S. Quarantine Stations are located at 20 ports of entry and land-border crossings where international travelers arrive. They are staffed with quarantine medical and public health officers from CDC. These health officers decide whether ill persons can enter the United States and what measures should be taken to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
“We are preparing as if this were the next pandemic, but we are hopeful still that this is not and will not be the case,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Messonnier told reporters at a briefing on Monday that federal officials “expect to see more cases of person-to-person spread among close contacts” of the 2019-nCoV Wuhan coronavirus. She added that “the goal here is to slow entry of this virus into the United States,” but said it would be impossible to block it entirely – a statement similar to one made by Israeli officials just a few days earlier.
The CDC has so far confirmed 11 cases of the illness in the United States, including two cases of person-to-person transmission.
Thus far there are zero confirmed cases of coronavirus in the State of Israel. All suspected cases of the illness have been checked and determined to be other viruses.