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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein visited a Likud lawmaker who is hospitalized with a severe case of COVID-19 on Saturday night.
Netanyahu and Edelstein went to the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv to see David Bitan, shortly after he became the first Israelis to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
Video footage from the hospital visit showed Netanyahu and Edelstein greeting Bitan through the glass.
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Bitan’s family said Saturday that he remains in serious but stable condition. They said the legislator is still hooked up to a device to help his heart and lungs, an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine (ECMO), and is communicating with those around him.
“David is being treated with dedication by the Sheba Medical Center team and we would like to thank them,” the family said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hands his son Avner his jacket before receiving the coronavirus vaccine at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on December 19, 2020 (Amir Cohen / Pool / AFP).
Bitan was hospitalized last Saturday when his oxygen levels dropped, days after it was revealed that he had contracted the coronavirus.
According to Channel 12 news, Bitan continued to meet with people prior to her diagnosis despite feeling unwell and coughing. Around 30 people were reportedly forced into quarantine as a result of the MK not following the directive to stay home when feeling unwell.
Bitan, who chairs the Knesset’s Committee on Immigration and Absorption, was among the politicians who welcomed the new immigrants from Ethiopia a few days before their diagnosis. That ceremony was also attended by Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and other senior government officials, although politicians wore masks at the open-air welcome event at Ben Gurion Airport and were not required to isolate themselves.
Bitan is among a handful of lawmakers and ministers who have contracted the virus, including then-Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, Immigration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata, Joint List Leader Ayman Odeh, Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel , Jerusalem Affairs Minister Rafi Peretz and Shas MK Yinon Azoulay.
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