Israel’s director of public health resigned on Tuesday, warning that Israel was “in a dangerous place” in its fight against a second wave of Covid-19.
Siegal Sadetzky, Israel’s most senior public health official who oversaw the initial response, criticised the government response to the outbreak in her resignation letter on Tuesday.
“Despite regular warnings in various settings and forums, we are witnessing with frustration that time is running out,” Ms Sadetzsky wrote.
Ms Sadetzky added that she believed that her “professional is not accepted” within government and that she could “no longer effectively assist in halting the spread of the virus”.
The Ministry of Health has recently undergone a shake-up, with Minister Yuli Edelstein appointed in May and director-general Professor Hezi Levy only having arrived in post in mid-June.
Ms Sadetzky wrote that Israel “which successfully managed the first wave, parted ways from other leading countries” by relaxing its lockdown too quickly.
In the lengthy resignation letter, Ms Sadetzky added that the guiding principles behind the government’s pandemic response had shifted since it tackled the initial outbreak.
“My sense,” she wrote, “is that, over time, we have changed from being professionals responding to events proactively to people in charge who have no authority and who are responding late, after the events.”
Ms Sadetzky also criticised the government for pushing aside health concerns in favour of reopening the economy.
Ms Sadetzsky's resignation comes as Israel recorded over 1,300 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday – a record high, and the third time within a week that the country had recorded over 1,000 new cases.
Israel’s death toll also rose between Sunday and Tuesday to 343, an increase of 12.
It was reported on Tuesday evening that the Israeli Health Ministry was seeking to shrink the number of requests for coronavirus tests, after testing laboratories warned that they did not have the capacity to cope with the surge in requests.
It is expected that changes will include a reduction in testing in Israeli schools and a decrease in the power of doctors to refer patients for a Covid-19 test.
The West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit began a week-long quarantine on Wednesday after the city experienced a marked increase in the number of cases, while the Transportation Ministry introduced limits on the number of passengers on public transport at any one time.
