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A woman, 25, suspected of having contracted the coronavirus, has been hospitalized Thursday at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, outside Tel Aviv, after refusing to be hospitalized voluntarily in isolation.

A document written by the Health Ministry’s Tel Aviv district physician Dr. Rivka Sheffer states that that doctors at Sheba have reported that “There is a suspicion that the patient has been infected with the coronavirus recently … The patient refuses to stay in hospital until the results of her tests confirm or refute that the disease is nesting in her body – this despite having being told several times that she needed to stay in isolation and receiving an explanation regarding the danger involved to the public health in her getting out of isolation.”




As directed by the district physician, the woman will remain in solitary confinement for eight hours and a guard may be posted to prevent her from leaving the isolation facility.

“This provision of forced isolation is given after it has been ascertained that no other options exist to prevent a public health hazard,” Dr. Sheffer wrote.

Dr. Shefer in a Health Ministry public service video encouraging Israelis to receive flu inoculation: