Israel’s efforts to quickly procure ventilators from abroad to address the coronavirus pandemic ended in clear failure this week, according to Haaretz newspaper.
As a consequence, the Zionist authorities decided to halt further efforts to buy the equipment overseas, and to concentrate on meeting the needs through domestic resources.
For a number of weeks, Israeli health care authorities have been anticipating substantially boosting supplies of ventilators through orders that had been placed. The new items were promised to intensive care units and hospitals, in preparation for a spike in the number of patients needing them because of the coronavirus. About a week ago, however, a German supplier withdrew a commitment to supply 1,000 of the devices in the time frame that had been agreed upon.
And at the beginning of the week, according to Haartez, US-based General Electric gave a similar notice that it could not meet its commitment to supply another 1,000 devices within the original time frame. For his part, Oren Karasik, the technology vice president of Levant Technologies, which supplies General Electric ventilators in ‘Israel’, told Haaretz that Israel’s order from GE has not been canceled and may still be supplied in the future. He insisted that, contrary to the official documentation, at no time had GE committed to a specific time frame for delivery.
In yet another discouraging development, it became apparent that China was no longer an option as a supplier after an Israeli agent who was to obtain another supply of 1,000 ventilators there gave notice that the machines had been taken by another customer.
Haaretz pointed out that Israel’s major effort to secure ventilators abroad was unsuccessful increases the risk that demand might outstrip supply, as was the case in Italy and other countries. The number of coronavirus cases keeps rising and patients who require ventilators need them for an extended period of two to three weeks. Data issued last month by the Health Ministry shows that ‘Israel’ has 2,864 ventilators, only about half of which would be available to new coronavirus patients. Last week, the ministry announced that it had a contingency plan to prepare for the prospect that within three or four months, Israel’s hospitals would have to provide care for 15,000 moderately to seriously ill coronavirus patients, including about 5,000 who would require respirators.
Source: Haaretz
