JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Rabbi David Yosef, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and a member of the Sephardic Torah Council, referred yesterday to the Israeli government decision to ease restrictions on public prayer and allow up to 19 people to pray together in an open space with masks while maintaining social distance. Rabbi Yosef quoted […]

As physicians who are שומרי תורה ומצוות and on the frontlines of the active COVID-19 pandemic, we implore all fellow Jews to continue strict adherence to isolation guidelines WITHOUT exceptions. Our Jewish communities require unique consideration and are at higher risk for rapid disease transmission. We live in close knit, multigenerational and interconnected communities with frequent overlapping contact in […]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — On Saturday afternoons, the Strip District neighborhood of Pittsburgh becomes a jam-packed hub of old-fashioned shopping. People stride along Penn Avenue, hopping from greengrocer to butcher to fishmonger to Italian market, smiling and gesturing and jabbering as they go. Not this weekend. As strange, spaced-out lines formed outside favorite establishments, the chatting […]

HALLE, Belgium (AP) — Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes just wanted to do the humane thing. After so many frail and elderly nursing home residents had been held in seclusion from their loved ones in the first weeks of the lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic, Wilmes said her government decided to allow one visitor […]

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City won’t allow public events in June, including three of the city’s major annual celebrations: the National Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Celebrate Israel parade and the Pride parade on its 50th anniversary. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that the events would be canceled or at least postponed, […]

NEW YORK (AP) — As residents at a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, began dying in late February from a coronavirus outbreak that would eventually take 43 lives, there was little sign of trouble at the Cobble Hill Health Center, a 360-bed facility in an upscale section of Brooklyn. Its Facebook page posted a cheerful […]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As a doctor in North Korea during the SARS outbreak and flu pandemic, Choi Jung Hun didn’t have much more than a thermometer to decide who should be quarantined. Barely paid, with no test kits and working with antiquated equipment, if anything, he and his fellow doctors in the northeastern […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus is touching all levels of society and increasing tensions as governments start to ease restrictions that health experts warn should be done gradually to avoid a resurgence of the illness that has killed more than 165,000 people. The mounting pressure was evident in the United States. The Trump administration says […]

MIAMI, Fa. (VINnews) — The president of the United Hatzalah organization, Eli Beer, has recovered from coronavirus and was released from the hospital where he had been intubated in serious condition for three weeks during the past month. Beer will fly back to Israel on a special flight organized by Mrs. Miriam Adelson (The wife […]

TZFAT (VINnews) — A 27-year-old coronavirus patient in serious condition hospitalized in the Sieff hospital in Tzfat underwent a successful delivery by caesarian section. The baby, who weighed in at 2.4 kilos (5 pounds) was transferred to the local neonatal ICU for further treatment. The patient was hospitalized last week suffering from COVID-19 and in […]