Photo Credit: David Cohen/FLASH90
A crowd of Israeli Haredim try to enter the closed burial site of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai in Meron, August 05, 2020.

A source familiar with Israel’s Health Ministry told the Haredim 10 website this week that the increase in Haredi “red cities” is due to some Haredi Israelis’ disregard for the coronavirus guidelines. For example, the source mentioned a 19-year-old yeshiva student whose extended family members went on a weekend outing. The young man, who had been in contact with a verified coronavirus patient, did not want to miss the fun and decided to travel with his family, contrary to every conceivable Health Ministry guideline. As a result, 60 members of his family became infected – brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and children.

In another case, a family that celebrated a bar mitzvah “did not abide by the rules, they put them down, they said, ‘Nonsense, we are just a family, no one will know.’ Everyone was infected by one brother-in-law who came to the Bar Mitzvah celebration even though he was supposed to be in solitary confinement – but decided to defy the guidelines. Now one of the family members is begging to arrange good care for their mother who has difficulty breathing and is suffering from high blood pressure,” the source said.

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Jerusalem leads the chart of confirmed coronavirus patients as of Monday, with 3,719. Bnei Brak, with a much smaller population, has 1,390 confirmed patients. Modiin Illit – 1,108; Tel Aviv – 988; Ashdod – 688; Beit Shemesh – 460; Netanya – 446.

Ten new patients died since midnight, bringing the overall number of dead to 685. Sunday saw 760 new confirmed patients, with 382 in serious condition and 112 on artificial ventilators. From the start of the pandemic, Israel recorded 92,680 confirmed patients.

As of Sunday, there have been 21,836,828 patients worldwide diagnosed with the coronavirus, with 773,197 dead. There are 6,495,199 active cases: 6,430,872 (99%) in mild condition, and 64,327 (1%) in serious or critical condition.

The US continues to lead the world with 5,566,632 verified coronavirus cases and 173,128 dead as of Sunday. It is followed by Brazil with 107,879 dead, India – 51,079, the UK – 41,366, Peru – 26,281, Mexico – 56,757, Russia – 15,740, and South Africa – 11,839.

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David writes news at JewishPress.com.