Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Wednesday that barring a miracle, Israel is heading back into full lockdown.
The minister said in an interview with Ynet that Israel will soon see 2,000 new cases daily as well as a rise in the number of seriously ill patients and those in need of ventilators, which will require tough decisions.
Edelstein rejected criticism that the government had not taken steps to prepare for the second wave of coronavirus spread or that a lockdown would be an admission of failure on the part of authorities, claiming a lockdown is a measure to be taken in order to bring the number of daily infections down.
"As other countries have learned, we must understand that lockdown reduces new infections and when it is removed, another wave of the virus can appear."