Israel passes 1 M COVID-19 cases mark
Yesterday, Israel passed the dubious landmark of one million Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases documented since the outbreak in the country, as the number of new daily cases continued to spike.
A nurse takes a swab at a Covid-19 rapid testing centre near the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Aug 19, 2021. Photo by Shalev Shalom/TPS
The Health Ministry updated Tuesday that it registered 9,831 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, moving toward the highest ever number of daily cases of 10,118 recorded in January.
In a period of some 555 days since the first COVID-19 case was recorded in Israel, about 10% of the citizens contracted the virus.
The capital of Israel and the largest city in the country, Jerusalem, is also the only city with more than 100,000 cases. Over 135,000 cases had been recorded and some 14% of the residents were infected, meaning that every seventh person in Jerusalem has been infected with corona since the outbreak of the virus.
The current number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in serious condition is 664, and 117 of them are on life support.
A high 6.63% of some 154,000 tests done Monday returned positive.
Former director-general of the Ministry of Health Prof. Hezi Levy said Tuesday that the current situation “reminds me of sights from previous waves. Beyond the hundreds hospitalized in the corona wards, there are other patients in other wards – and the attention and treatment are not optimal.”
The government is determined to keep all COVID-19 restrictions to a minimum and to open the school year on September 1, despite predictions of another sharp spike in infections.
A total of 6,864 Israelis have died of COVID-19, including 30 on Sunday and 12 on Monday.
