The human race is going through one of the strangest times in its history. There is a pandemic that is not just secluded to one country, but COVID-19 has made its way to almost every country around the world. Countries are scrambling to create an adequate response to this pandemic and are all hoping that their tactics will help to protect their people from this disease. As this pandemic continues, leaders around the world are actively searching to see what response tactics are working best and have looked to see if those tactics can be implemented in their countries as well. Israel put forth a strong early response that allowed them to limit the spread of COVID-19, and has also done great work using technology to control its spread throughout the country.

Israel is being lauded by the international community for its early response towards the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has prevented it from violently spreading throughout the country. Once they were able to test some of their citizens and see the spread they took immediate and decisive action towards prevention. Those that come into the country must go into self-quarantine for two weeks, so that they can prevent those who are symptomatic from spreading the virus ,before they are allowed into the general population. An important measure so that Israel can focus their efforts on dealing with the people in their country who already have the disease. Before the country even found its 100th case on March 12th, policy was put into place to quarantine infected individuals to ensure that they weren’t spreading it to others.

Religious leaders around the country encouraged believers around the country to avoid congregating at places of worship, and instead recommended that they stay home and pray to keep themselves and others in their congregations safe. Israel held their national election for prime minister on March 2nd and “quarantined voters assembled in polling stations for their exclusive use” to ensure their safety. Finally, they have used their centralized health care system to their full advantage. Israel's national director has used it to efficiently give out resources to hospitals and areas of the country with the most need. This has helped them to prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed.

Israel is using technology and privacy data to keep their population safe and track those who are infected, as well as those who might have been in contact with the infected. The Israeli government is using cell phone location data that they were already collecting as a prevention tool for counter-terrorism, so that they can prevent the spread of COVID-19. This data is being used to track those who have been diagnosed with the virus to ensure that they are following their quarantining measures, and also to alert those who have been in close proximity of the infected of their possible risk. Their methods are being questioned by some because they are worried about the ethical and privacy questions that are brought about because of these methods. Those who are unsure of whether they have the virus are able to send text messages from their homes explaining their symptoms, and this information is reviewed preventing a backlog of patients for testing at the hospitals. This also allows researchers to create geographic heat maps to show which regions need more attention than others.

They are also using artificial intelligence technology to help medical professionals to create risk assessments for patients, so that doctors can focus more on treating patients versus having to spend time creating a triage for their patients. This is being done by employing the help from firms like Diagnostic Robotics, who are able to create digital profiles for patients using their prior health status and their observed symptoms to create a risk profile for each individual patient.

Israel is beginning to figure out what is next for them in the race to eliminate COVID-19, including moving closer to a vaccine, and determining what is the next course of action in responding to the pandemic. Israel is attempting to be the first country to have a viable vaccine for COVID-19, and they believe that their work with an avian coronavirus will be what gives them the edge. Israeli scientists believe that an avian coronavirus that they have been studying prior to the pandemic has a similar infection mechanism and that they will be able to adapt their work to fight against COVID-19. The belief is that human trials could begin in the month of June putting their vaccine ahead of the rest of the world. The Ministry’s Director-General has been told to fast-track the approval process for the vaccine if the vaccine is successful after human trials. Until then, Israel is looking to find the extent to which the coronavirus has spread throughout the country using antibody tests.

The data collected from antibody tests will push Israeli leaders to choose whether to opt for herd immunity, which would allow for more relaxed restrictions, or whether to maintain a course of harsher restrictions on day-to-day life. If it is found that a large portion of the population has antibodies for the virus, then they will opt to use a herd immunity tactic which they believe would allow the virus to spread but enough people will already be immune to the point where it won’t be spreading rapidly and may start going away as a result.