Number of coronavirus cases in Israel exceeds 8,000 as death toll continues to rise

Israel’s COVID-19 death toll stands at 47, with 8,018 confirmed cases of infection, according to Israel’s Health Ministry. Of the confirmed cases, 7,195 patients are listed as being in mild condition, 173 in moderate condition and 127 in critical condition, among them 106 on ventilators. Thus far, 477 people in Israel have recovered from the virus.

Amid the backdrop of the tragic spread of the virus at a Beersheva nursing home, and as part of the efforts to stop the spread of the outbreak in Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tasked the Defense Ministry and Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command with helping the Health Ministry to administer the country’s nursing homes.

 

Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, a Magen David Adom volunteer paramedic was attacked upon entering Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood to administer a coronavirus test, with neighborhood residents hurling stones and other objects at him. He sustained a light head wound and was taken to hospital for treatment. The windshield of his vehicle was also smashed. A crime report was filed with police.

“I got out of the municipality-issued vehicle we drive around to take blood samples, and on the way to the home of a person who was showing symptoms [of the coronavirus] … all of a sudden a crowd of people began gathering around me, shouting at me and they threw stones and other things at me,” said Nassim Khatib, the medic.