Israel’s Health Ministry stated that 2,180 people had tested positive for the coronavirus in the previous 24 hours on Monday morning, the highest number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic, surpassing the previous record of 2,100 cases on July 28.

There are currently 20,699 active cases, with 438 seriously ill patients, of whom 119 are ventilated. The death toll has risen to 946.

Israeli’s lab technicians, who are on their third day of a strike, protested outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem at 5 p.m. The lab workers have been continuing to carry out coronavirus tests during the strike but have threatened to halt all tests if no progress in negotiations is made.

Dr. Avishai Ellis, chairman of the Israeli Association of Internal Medicine, warned on Tuesday that “the strike of the laboratory workers is endangering the patients hospitalized in internal medicine wards and is disrupting the general medical routine in hospitals across the country.”

“There are great difficulties in treating patients in internal medicine wards without laboratory tests and it’s no less difficult to discharge patients from hospitals [without lab tests]. It’s leading to a disruption in ongoing medical care and increasing the workloads in hospitals.”

Dr. Ellis called on the government to swiftly resolve the crisis. Negotiations between the Finance Ministry and the Lab Workers’ Union on Monday ended without any resolutions.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)