Man commits suicide at coronavirus hotel as residents protest conditions

The coronavirus cabinet was updated about the suicide on Monday.

By TZVI JOFFRE
Updated: DECEMBER 21, 2020 21:36
IDF soldiers at the entrance of a coronavirus hotel (photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
IDF soldiers at the entrance of a coronavirus hotel
(photo credit: TOMER NEUBERG/FLASH90)
A man committed suicide at a coronavirus hotel in Israel on Monday, as new arrivals at a coronavirus hotel in Jerusalem protested the conditions at the hotel.
The coronavirus cabinet was updated about the suicide during a meeting on Monday afternoon, according to KAN news.
As a new strain of the coronavirus detected in the UK has begun to spread around the world, the coronavirus cabinet decided on Monday to ban all foreign citizens from entering the country and requiring all Israelis who enter Israel to enter coronavirus hotels for quarantine for at least 10 days.
The decision will take effect on Wednesday afternoon.
About 30 residents who returned to Israel on Sunday from the UK and were forced to enter quarantine at a coronavirus hotel conducted a protest on Monday in front of the Dan Panorama coronavirus hotel against Health Ministry regulations, according to Channel 12.
The protesters claimed that since they were forced into a quarantine hotel immediately upon arrival without warning, they did not have time to prepare and did not have supplies they needed. They additionally claimed that they were not receiving suitable food and one person stated that she was not receiving blood pressure medication she needs.
The occupants in the hotel are required to stay in their rooms, and leaving their rooms, and especially leaving the entire building, goes against Health Ministry regulations.
An olah (female immigrant) who ended up in the Metropolitan coronavirus hotel in Tel Aviv earlier this year experienced extreme difficulty in obtaining medication that was essential for her healthcare while in the hotel.
The olah, who spoke to The Jerusalem Post on condition of anonymity, stated that she explained to the people running the hotel from the beginning that she was low on medication, but was told that she would need to talk to her HMO, Maccabi, to receive medication. Maccabi then told her that she would need to talk to the hotel, but the hotel was unwilling to help and despite requesting help over and over again she was unable to find help.
The olah only speaks English, so she was also unable to navigate online ordering systems at local pharmacies. She eventually found an organization called KeepOlim, who spoke with the authorities responsible and, after a week and a half in the hotel, the military staff who were handling the hotel finally sat down with the olah to help her order through the online ordering system.
“By that time, I was completely out of one medication that was dangerous for me to not take and I was rationing the other [medication] so that I wouldn’t run out of it because it was also dangerous to not take,” she told the Post. “It was a lot of running around. It was very neglectful.”
At one point, she visited the doctor at the hotel who decided to put her on a steroid medication for her asthma, but he gave her a paper prescription slip meaning that she had no way to order it. “I needed this medication so that I could breathe and I had no way to get it,” said the olah. “It was a nightmare with a lot of tears. They treat you kind of like you’re in prison.”
The food situation was also an issue for the olah, who described the food as “not all edible.” Sometimes they’d forget to bring her water as well, although they would bring it if she called and reminded them. “It was like they didn’t know what they were doing or how to take care of the people that needed their care.”


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