The Israeli police said Sunday although the public is mostly compliant with the health orders, many, even confirmed COVID-19 carriers, still violate the lockdown despite the surging coronavirus numbers.
Israel entered a full lockdown on Friday evening in an effort to combat the spread of the pathogen, while the country's tally of serious COVID-19 cases has hit a record high.
Chief Superintendent Assi Aharoni told Ynet the majority of the Israeli public has been compliant with the health orders, but there are still those who violate the guidelines, including at least 91 coronavirus patients on social calls caught over the weekend.
"On Saturday, two verified carriers were apprehended, in southern and central Israel," he said. "They knew they were sick and still left the house, one to visit friends and the other just drove around in his car. In cases like there, we do not hand fines but open a criminal investigation on suspicion of spreading the virus. These people will be prosecuted."
Aharoni added that over the weekend, the police handed out over 12,400 fines, mostly for leaving the house for non-essential reasons. "At checkpoints they're on their way to 'have a dinner with the grandmother', which is heartwarming, but when we check sometimes it turns out the said grandmother has been dead for years," he said.
At least 1,793 of the fines were handed out for failing for wear a face mask, 358 for being in an unauthorized location, 161 were issued to businesses who violated health guidelines and 137 to people who violated self-isolation order.
He also slammed Tel Aviv residents who on Saturday swarmed beach boardwalks on the pretext of exercising.
"In the end, we enforced the lockdown. Police cars were called and ordered people to leave. Dozens of fines were also handed out, but it was unnecessary for the situation to escalate to this oint.