The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, in partnership with Israel’s Health Ministry, the IDF Home Front Command, and Israel Police, on Tuesday inaugurated an epidemiological investigation center.
A total of 100 municipal workers and post-high school volunteers will staff the new center, which will operate seven days a week, with two daily shifts. The center is tasked with breaking the chain of COVID-19 infections in an effective and quick manner.
Tel Aviv-Yafo Mayor Ron Huldai said in a statement: “The Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality moved up a level in the fight against COVID-19 today. We understood that in order to flatten the curve in the city we must take the initiative and lead. One hundred municipal employees and post-high school volunteers will work seven days a week, locate patients, isolate them, and ensure that they are following the guidelines. This is how you cut the chain of the infection quickly and efficiently.”
With 2,108 active Corona patients, Tel Aviv-Yafo’s rate of infection is 3.8 per 1,000 residents (compared with its neighbor to the east, Bnei Brak, where the rate is 26.58 per 1,000).
During the first wave of COVID-19, the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality established a control center in partnership with Home Front Command and the Health Ministry, which closely monitors rates of coronavirus infection in different neighborhoods.
The municipality also conducts regular awareness campaigns for the different neighborhoods, communities, and groups within the city, as well as enforcement activities in accordance with powers allocated to the municipality.
In addition, the municipality has bolstered its call center with social workers to deal with the increase in mental health and financial difficulties among city residents. The municipality is operating many initiatives to assist businesses, artists, and elderly residents of the city.
The opening of the epidemiological investigation center was attended by Mayor Ron Huldai, director of Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality’s Social Services Administration Sharon Blum Melamed, and investigation center commander Lt.-Col. Yehoram Hason.