Israel’s Lockdown Exit Policy – New Simulator

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Exit plans terminating the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Israel are gradually applied, but the mathematical models they are based on were never exposed to the public. A team of researchers from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is developing a simulator for the calculated management of the ease of the lockdown. The simulator will help evaluate the consequences of the government’s various policy measures over the spread of the pandemic in Israel. 

The research team is a collaboration between the Technion and the Civilian Cabinet – a voluntary civilian organization.

The simulator which is adapted to the Israeli setting will help decision-makers test various alternatives and policies and their consequences regarding the country’s health system and economy, the extent of social distancing, and the state budget.

The friendly interface enables to connect policy measures (e.g. the isolation of groups in risk or individual isolation orders) with various result indices (e.g. death toll prediction, loss of economy’s national product) on both the short and long runs. The simulator has already received positive feedback from government officials.

The team has completed the modeling of the demographic and individual isolation measures. Within the next two weeks, with the aggregation of data regarding the influence of the exit policy – the opening of businesses and educational institutions, more data will be added to the model in order to get a complete calculation.

The simulator will be available for whoever is interested, providing the public with a tool that explains policy choices.