Opposition Calls for Emergency Session of the Knesset to Address Hospital Crisis

In recent news, opposition leaders in the State of Israel have called on the speaker of the Knesset, Mickey Levy, to schedule the Knesset plenum, in order to have an emergency session. Despite the fact that the Knesset called for a recess, the opposition believes that the session needs to be reconvened to address the hospital crisis that has arisen in the country, amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

The faction heads of the ultra-Orthodox Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, came together to write a statement to Levy. They urged him to immediately handle the collapse of medical institutions, which are refusing to take in any patients of the novel coronavirus. In addition, they are preparing to invoke Shabbat mode, due to a lack of funds allocated to them by the government of the country. 

They said that the hospitals are suffering from a shortage of supplies and funding. The written statement demanded that the Knesset have a meeting to address this issue at the earliest. They believe that the disregard of the government for the basic requirements of the hospitals is the reason behind this mess, amid the rising number of infections in the country. 

This demand from the Haredi parties came shortly after Idit Silman, the Chairwoman of the Knesset Health Committee and Coalition, announced that she will soon be convening an emergency session of the Knesset committee to talk about the hospitals. She had previously asked Levy to ensure that this meeting is convened at the earliest, in lieu of the urgency of the situation.

The Knesset speaker has decided to convene the meeting of the committee for next Tuesday. He further added that the mental healthcare system will also be addressed in the session. 

In other news, the booster shot of the coronavirus has been made available to individuals aged 30 and above, as announced by the Health Ministry. On Tuesday, the country recorded around 10,000 new cases of the deadly disease, which is the second-highest number registered, ever since the 18th of January. The authorities are working hard towards ensuring that a majority of the population receives the third shot, in order to stem the rise in the number of infections. 

Up until now, around 1.57 million Israelis have been given the booster shot. This includes 16% of those people who are aged between 40 to 49. Moreover, 40% of this figure pertains to citizens of the country aged between 50 and 59 and 61% individuals aged between 60 and 69. 

Nitzan Horowitz, the health minister, took to Twitter to announce that the State of Israel has acquired enough vaccines to ensure that the eligible age groups for the booster shot are catered to. He added that the vaccination is both effective and quick, and helpful in minimizing the horrifying effects of the disease. 

All healthcare providers in the country have set up inoculation stations to administer the third shot of the coronavirus vaccine to people in their 30s.