By: TPS
An IDF soldier who had come in contact with an infected patient was diagnosed on Monday with Coronavirus, bringing the number of patients in Israel to 10.
The IDF stated that patient number 10 is a female soldier who worked at the Red Pirate store in Or Yehuda, where she was infected by a patient who was not aware that he was carrying the virus. She is in light condition and was evacuated to the secluded compound in Tel Hashomer hospital by MDA.
An investigation is underway to find other people who were around her and who may have been infected.
Patients number eight and nine are family members who recently returned from a vacation in Italy.
All Israeli patients are in light condition.
The Ministry of Health published the locations that the patients visited since returning to the country and asked the public who was on the flight with them or who may have encountered them in public to enter a self-imposed quarantine for 14 days.
Some 5,000 Israelis have been sent into quarantine, mostly at home, out of fear that they may have contracted the virus. The state arranged designated ballots for them on elections day.
The IDF stated that 334 soldiers are in confinement, with most of them returning from a vacation abroad, some having met with a group of South Koreans tourists who were infected, and some who had come in contact with patients.
A few cases of Corona have been recorded in Israel, mostly Israelis returning from the east or Italy, and possibly some who have come in contact with tourists from South Korea who were already ill with the virus, but there has yet to be a widespread outbreak in the country.
Israeli researchers at MIGAL Institute announced Thursday that they have made a breakthrough on the way to developing an effective vaccine against Coronavirus and expect it to be ready in the coming weeks.
The novel Coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 64 countries around the world.
At least 89,000 cases of Coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide, including at least 3,000 deaths. Some 45,000 have recovered.
Politicians and analysts have spent the past days pondering over the potential impact fear over the virus may have on voter turnout in Israel, with some voicing concern that exaggerating the risk of infection could be used as a political weapon to deter voters in certain regions from going to the polls.
“We are facing an unprecedented event with our third election, people are tired of voting again,” Professor Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist and public health expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told TPS. “Any minor perception of threat may have an impact on people looking for reasons not to go out and vote.”
Blue and White leader and Prime Ministerial candidate Benny Gantz soon expressed the fears shared by many in Israel: The use of Corona as a political tool. Gantz took to Twitter to accuse supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party of spreading claims of corona in Givatayim.
(TPS)
