There are 14,803 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Israel on Thursday, with 139 in serious condition, of whom 107 are ventilated.

A total of 5,685 Israelis have recovered from the virus.

Israel recorded 193 deaths by Friday including Rav Yeshayahu Heber, z’l, who founded Matnat Chaim, a non-profit organization to encourage altruistic kidney donations, through which the lives of about 800 people were saved in the past decade.

The IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate said that they believe the coronavirus crisis will last in the Middle East at least until the end of 2021, a Maariv report said. The estimate is based on an intense analysis of all aspects, trends, and predictions of how the crisis could affect the Middle East in the near future.

The Health and Defense Ministries announced on Thursday night that they had signed a contract with Israeli genealogy company MyHeritage to carry out 10,000 coronavirus tests daily. As part of the agreement, MyHeritage is establishing a laboratory for testing with equipment obtained from the Chinese company BGI.

The Health Ministry has already finalized a separate agreement with BGI to provide the equipment.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)