Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday that he is stepping down from his position, a Channel 12 News report said. Litzman will head the Construction and Housing Ministry instead, reportedly due to the Gerrer Rebbe’s instructions, as he wants Litzman to work toward solving the housing crisis in the Chareidi community. Litzman reportedly agreed to switch to the health ministry only if he would also gain control over the Israel Lands Authority. The health ministry was a major issue in the coalition agreements as Blue and White had insisted on the health ministry but Netanyahu refused to take the position from Litzman. Eventually, Blue and White conceded on the issue and received the foreign ministry instead.

Rav Binyamin Wolff, z’l, a Chabad shaliach in Hanover, Germany, passed away from the coronavirus on Friday night at the age of 43, leaving behind his wife, 8 young children, parents and siblings, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. Rav Wolff is the son of Rav Menny and Feigel Wolff of Kiryat Malachi, Israel, and is the son-in-law of the famed Chabad shaliach Rav Moshe Greenberg, z’l, and his wife Devorah, of Bnei Brak. Rav Wolff was extremely successful as a shaliach in Hanover and over the years managed to make a complete turnabout in the Jewish identity of the lives of many Jews in the city. Yehi Zichro Baruch. STAY UPDATED WITH BREAKING UPDATES FROM YWN VIA WHATSAPP – SIGN UP NOW Just click on this link, and you will be placed into a group. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The World Health Organization is warning that people who have had Covid-19 are not necessarily immune by the presence of antibodies from getting the virus again. “There is no evidence yet that people who have had Covid-19 will not get a second infection,” WHO said in a scientific brief published Friday. It cautions against governments that are considering issuing so-called “immunity passports” to people who have had Covid-19, assuming they are safe to resume normal life. The UN health agency said in a scientific brief published on Saturday that more research is needed.

(By: Sandy Eller) With over nearly 11,000 coronavirus-related fatalities in New York City over the last few weeks, the New York City Department of Health has been facing an unprecedented volume of requests for death certificates. Hoping to streamline the process, the DOH has begun issuing death certificates only through its eVital electronic filing system, eliminating paper certificates completely at this time. The DOH rolled out eVital in October 2018 and while many doctors have signed up for the system which issues electronic death certificates, a large number have not, particularly within our community and have been continuing to issue hand-written death certificates.

Amid tensions with Iran, President Donald Trump said Wednesday on Twitter he has given orders for the Navy to “shoot down and destroy” any Iranian gunboats found to be harassing U.S. ships. A U.S. Navy video last week showed small Iranian fast boats coming close to American warships as they operated in the northern Persian Gulf near Kuwait, with U.S. Army Apache helicopters. “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea,” Trump tweeted. Trump did not cite a specific event in his tweet, or provide details. The White House had no immediate comment. The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based 5th Fleet referred questions about the tweet to the Pentagon, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York state issued a blanket do-not-resuscitate directive last week instructing first-responders not to try to revive patients without a pulse amid increased call volumes and lack of resources during the coronavirus public health crisis, according to a report. Paramedics were previously told to attempt to resuscitate a patient found in cardiac arrest for up to 20 minutes, the New York Post reported. The new order is “necessary during the COVID-19 response to protect the health and safety of EMS providers by limiting their exposure, conserve resources, and ensure optimal use of equipment to save the greatest number of lives,’’ according to a memo issued last week by the state Department of Health.

There are 13,930 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Israel as of Tuesday, of whom 119 are ventilated. A total of 4,353 Israelis have recovered from the virus and for the fourth day, there are more recovered patients than new patients in Israel, with a total of 481 recovered patients and 229 new patients. Israel marked 197 fatalities on Tuesday including Asias Argo, a 100-year-old Ethiopian woman, the mother of nine children and 30 grandchildren, who passed away at Kaplan Hospital in Rechovot on Tuesday morning and HaRav Chaim Aharon Turchin, 48, who had no history of preexisting medical conditions but passed away at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv overnight Monday, leaving 14 orphaned children.

A gunman disguised as a police officer shot people in their homes and set fires in a rampage across the Canadian province of Nova Scotia that killed 16 people, the deadliest such attack in the country’s history. Officials said Sunday the suspected shooter was also dead. A police officer was among those killed. Several bodies were found inside and outside one home in the small, rural town of Portapique, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Halifax — what police called the first scene. Bodies were also found at other locations. The assault began late Saturday, and authorities believe the shooter may have targeted his first victims but then began attacking randomly.

There are 13,265 people in Israel diagnosed with the coronavirus, of whom 113 are ventilated. The number of patients on ventilators has dropped by 8.6% from Friday as the curve continues to flatten in Israel. The number of active patients has also begun to decrease as well as the number of new cases per day. A total of 61 fatalities are from Israel’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities, almost 40% of Israel’s fatalities. A 33-year-old medical student who was training at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan is in critical condition after contracting the coronavirus, the first Israeli medical practitioner to fall seriously ill from the virus.

An attorney for the man accused of committing an anti-Semitic attack with a machete wants the body of the victim who later died to be exhumed. Attorney Michael Sussman wants the body of Josef Neumann exhumed for an autopsy, The Journal News reported. Neumann was one of five people injured in the attack on a rabbi’s home in Monsey, New York, on Dec. 28. “We need to know medically if it’s a murder or if it’s the consequence of some disease pattern or something else,” Sussman said in an interview Tuesday. Grafton Thomas has been indicted on federal hate crime charges and state charges including attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Sussman has argued that his client was not motivated by anti-Semitism and is mentally ill.