"This event is a tsunami that could not have been prepared for," Moshe Bar Siman Tov said. He estimated that within a week, the country will have about 200 severely ill patients.

Israel was aware of the potential for a coronavirus crisis as early as January 20 but did not increase the number of respirators or emergency room beds to prepare for the outbreak, Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov admitted on Thursday, shortly before three more Israelis died. In total, eight Israelis have died from the virus. At the first meeting of the Knesset Coronavirus Committee, members and the director-general reviewed a report prepared by the Knesset Research and Information Center that showed for the first time that there are only 1,437 available respirators in Israel and only 758 ICU beds.


In addition, the report showed an acute shortage of protective masks and other gear for healthcare workers. As of March 25, there were 3,600 healthcare workers in isolation, including 926 doctors and 1,192 nurses. 

Bar Siman Tov was quick to defend the ministry: "This event is a tsunami that could not have been prepared for,”  he said, explaining that the numbers in the report did not show the whole picture.

"We have in stock about 1,500 usable and available respirators," he said. "There are another 70 respirators in the private system that we will use as well. We currently have 2,864 machines above those currently in use, assuming they are all in working order."

He added that the country is also trying to establish production of ventilators in Israel with the goal of reaching as many as 3,000. 

But whether that number will be enough to handle all the country’s expected critical patients was unclear from the discussion. In order to ensure that the health system does not buckle under the pressure, Bar Siman Tov said that the aim is to "flatten the curve" – to prevent a sharp peak of cases but rather spread out the infection over a longer period of time. Read more at JPost