Israel sets up voting locations for people quarantined for COVID-19

This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by COVID-19. Illustration courtesy of CDC

March 1 (UPI) — Israel’s Election Committee has put special polling stations into place for voters that have been quarantined for potential exposure to COVID-19.

As many as 15 polling places will be set up to allow the quarantined voters to cast their ballots in the country’s third national election in less than eleven months on Monday, the election committee’s director general Orly Ades told its parliamentary finance committee.

“The numbers change every day, people enter and leave isolation but we are keeping an eye on it,” said Ades.

There are six confirmed cases of the virus in Israel where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he saw no reason to postpone the election due to the outbreak of the coronavirus.

“I think right now we’re in control,” he said.

Asymptomatic voters who have been quarantined will be able to vote in the tented areas as long as they wear face masks, refrain from using public transportation and follow other provisions.

The ballots will be sealed in special double envelopes and counted separately from other ballots as EMTs from the Magen David Adom paramedic corps will oversee the vote.

Hundreds of Israelis who may have interacted with a group of South Korean tourists that tested positive for the virus after visiting various religious and historic sites throughout the country were ordered to be quarantined last week.

The third election in less than a year comes as neither Netanyahu’s Likud party nor Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party have been able to receive enough support to successfully form a government.

Recent polls have shown Likud with a slight lead, but not enough to break the impasse that has prompted the third election.

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