Israel reports over 6,000 daily COVID-19 cases... President issues national apology

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] On the night of the 16th (local time), the Israeli Ministry of Health announced that the cumulative number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) nationwide reached 170,465, an increase of 6,063 in the past 24 hours. This is the first time since the first infection was reported at the end of February this year that the daily new cases in Israel have exceeded 6,000.

Considering the estimated population of 9,246,000 announced by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on the 16th, this means that 1 in every 54 people is confirmed positive.

The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in Israel reached 1,165, an increase of 18 in one day.

Accordingly, the Israeli government will implement a nationwide lockdown for three weeks starting from 2 p.m. on the 18th, the beginning of the holiday 'Rosh Hashanah' (Jewish New Year holiday), to curb the surge in COVID-19 cases.

As COVID-19 infections surged, public opinion against the Israeli government also deteriorated significantly. Local media reported that President Reuven Rivlin apologized for the failure of COVID-19 policies.

In a nationally televised speech on the 16th, Israeli President Rivlin said regarding COVID-19 policies, "We know that as leaders, we did not take sufficient measures to the extent that you noticed," and "You trusted us, and we disappointed you."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.