There are 14,326 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Israel as of Wednesday, with 148 in serious condition, of whom 111 are ventilated.
A total of 4,961 Israelis have recovered from the virus. Unfortunately, the trend of a decreased number of new cases in Israel seen in the past few days ended as the number of new cases jumped on Wednesday to almost double from Tuesday.
Israel marked 188 deaths on Wednesday including 52-year-old Baila Porush, a’h, of the Shomrei Emunim neighborhood of Jerusalem, who passed away at Shaarei Tzedek Hospital, a 98-year-old woman who also passed away at Shaarei Tzedek Hospital and a 95-year-old woman who passed away at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva. Overnight on Tuesday, an 85-year-old man, a former resident of the Yavneel nursing home, passed away in Shoham Medical Center and a 79-year-old man passed away in the Maayanei Yeshuah Hospital in Bnei Brak.
The Deputy Director of the Health Ministry, Prof. Itamar Grotto, said on Wednesday that the current coronavirus outbreak has begun to recede but warned that reopening the schools will lead to a new outbreak. Professor Sigal Sadetsky, the head of the Health Ministry’s Public Health Services, said on Wednesday that she is afraid there will be a second wave of infections in May if Israelis become lax on adhering to social distancing regulations.
One of the twin girls born to a coronavirus patient last week passed away on Wednesday morning in Poriyah Hospital in Tiverya.
The twins were born to a woman who tested positive for the virus in the 35th week of her pregnancy. When the woman, who only had light symptoms from the virus, recovered from the birth, she was sent home to self-quarantine and the twins remained in the PICU due to their low birth weight.
The hospital stated that the babies were tested twice for the virus and the results were negative.
The walls of the Old City of Jerusalem were lit up on Tuesday night in honor of Magan Dovid Adom as a token of appreciation for the organization. Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon stated: “Jerusalem salutes Magen David Adom! – on the mobilization, the willingness and assistance to the residents of Jerusalem. Thank you, on behalf of us all.”
#ירושלים 🙏❤#היבדק_וסע 😷 #ארגון_ההצלה_הלאומי 🇮🇱 #במקרה_חירום_חייגו_101 #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/s0abxIS3Yz
— מגן דוד אדום (@mda_israel) April 21, 2020
In anticipation of Ramadan, which begins on Friday, April 24, the Health Ministry launched a NIS 3 million ($85,000) campaign warning Arab-Israelis to adhere to coronavirus restrictions during the month-long holiday.
The campaign instructing Arab-Israelis to pray at home and break their daily fasts at home without guests is being carried out through billboards, ads and text messages. On Wednesday, the Knesset approved nightly closures of Arab areas during Ramadan.
On Tuesday, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett ordered the IDF to stop carrying out coronavirus tests for residents of the Gaza Strip.
The tests had been initiated without the prior knowledge of the Knesset and even Bennett himself due to a lack of coordination of the various branches of the IDF, a Maariv report said.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
The ratio of death to cases reported, comparing Israel to other places (New York City in particular) suggest that either someone is lying (the Chinese probably are, but there is no reason to suspect anyone else) – or more likely – they are using totally different statistical methods. Is a “case” someone who needs to be hospitalized, or does it include someone who tests positive but isn’t sick enough to be hospitalized, or someone with antibodies showing they had the disease (perhaps without symptoms), Similarly, do you count as a death from Covid 19 someone who died of an existing condition who probably would have died soon anyways but who was positive for Covid 19 when they died? What is the person died and hasn’t been tested for Covid 19 but you suspect it was a factor?
Depending on how you look at statistics, Covid 19 has a death rate of around 5%, making it closer to smallpox than flu, while other statistics suggest the death rate is well under 1%, and is more like a seasonal flu (albeit without vaccines) than a plague threatening the stability of society.