
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Sunday with US Vice President Mike Pence. The two agreed that follow-up talks would be held in the coming hours between the Israeli team on dealing with the Coronavirus and the American team, with the participation of White House Coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah L. Birx.
The talks will be held in order to advance technological and scientific cooperation on the issue of the Coronavirus and to discuss joint efforts in preventing the spread of the virus.
Earlier, Haaretz reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu is pressuring the Health Ministry not to order domestic isolation for people returning from certain destinations in the United States. The Health Ministry intended to publish the directive tonight, but the prime minister was concerned the move would hurt relations with the United States and President Donald Trump.
Meanwhile, following the spread of the Coronavirus in the Palestinian Authority, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan ordered the Prison Service to freeze all visits to Palestinian Arab security prisoners and prevent visitors from the PA from entering prison confines.
Erdan said that "preventing prison visits is a necessary step. Corona's arrival in [Israeli] prisons could cause mass incarceration of prisoners with the disease and we must do our utmost to prevent such a scenario from materializing."