February 17, 2020 10:00 am
JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Jerusalem Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar will be forced to go into quarantine after he returns from a visit abroad to Singapore this week.
The precautionary requirement by Israeli health authorities is being taken in the light of the coronavirus which is rapidly becoming a world epidemic after it initially emerged in the Wuhan region in China, where tens of thousands of people have contracted the contagious virus.
Rabbi Amar is visiting Singapore to supervise the opening of the new Jewish cemetery there. Singapore is on the list of nations named by Israel’s Health Ministry as high-risk locations from which travelers must enter a 14-day mandatory quarantine upon their return to Israel.
When Rabbi Amar returns to the country, he will be required to maintain a self-quarantine at his home for 14 days — the length of time it takes to determine whether he has caught the virus or not.
Israel’s Health Ministry recently expanded its mandatory quarantine regulations to travelers returning from Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Macau, in addition to those arriving from China.
In the meantime, the total number of confirmed cases of the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked at Yokohama Port has risen to 355; when the ship began its quarantine there were more than 3,700 passengers and crew aboard the vessel.
Three Israeli passengers have also become infected with the virus. An Israeli physician is on his way to Japan to accompany them through the treatment at the American hospital about an hour away from the ship. The other 12 Israeli passengers who remain on the vessel are hoping to be evacuated by the Israeli government and are staying in their cabins as much as possible, even rejecting offers to go out for “fresh air” an hour a day, due to concerns they might catch the illness.
More than 68,500 people have been infected, and at least 1,669 people have died worldwide, officials have said. Most have been in in the Hubei Province of China, the epicenter of the outbreak
Source: VosIzNeias