P.M Netanyahu and Health ninister Edelstein decided: Prof. Roni Gamzo will be Corona Project Manager

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announced last night (Thursday) that they have decided to appoint Prof. Roni Gamzo to the position of Corona Project Manager. This, after Prof. Gabi Barbash announced last night that he had withdrawn his candidacy for the position, against the background of a dispute regarding the definition of his powers. Minister Edelstein requested that Barbash be subordinate to him. Barbash issued an ultimatum yesterday and announced that if no agreement was reached on his appointment and powers within hours, he would withdraw his candidacy.
Gamzo has been managing the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv since 2015. Prior to that, he served as director general of the Ministry of Health for five years. This month, Gamzo told Haaretz that whoever is elected to the project should be "leader, performer, strong, smart. Taking on the role, he replied: "There was an increase in criticism when I left Ichilov, I probably will not do it now." On the possibility of imposing a closure he said that "it's at the bottom of the bottom of the toolbox ... Management failure. "
The announcement of Barbash's appointment was due to be delivered yesterday, at a joint press conference, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Edelstein. However, the controversy over his powers led to the dismissal of the notice. Throughout the day, Netanyahu and Edelstein maintained contacts with Barbash. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was also involved in efforts to draw the boundaries between the project and the Ministry of Health.
Edelstein referred yesterday to the appointment of the projector in interviews with Globes and the Kippa website. "There are some good candidates, but I do not want them to be wronged," he explained. "There was some expectation that the projector will be the Messiah. A good and worthy person will come (but) he will not invent new methods compared to what we do ... we need to make it clear that everything works, we were just looking for a partner to tighten things up."
Recently, two senior officers, Retired Maj. Gen. Roni Noma and Maj. Gen. Amir Abulafia, relinquished the position of Corona Projector. The two rejected Edelstein's proposals after it became clear to them that he wanted them to be subordinate to the Ministry of Health and not to the Corona Cabinet. Abulafia was offered to run the corona headquarters alongside Barbash, but he believed that as long as the body was placed below the Ministry of Health, and not above government ministries, it would have no real impact.