Despite alarming rise in diagnoses, death toll remains unchanged at 320; Health Ministry passes 1-million mark for number of tests as it warns ‘mild’ rise in cases, stabilization in serious patients creating ‘false sense of security’
Israel has reached a new high for the number of daily infections, the Health Ministry said Wednesday, with 773 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday.
The country has also reached passed the one million mark for the number of tests it has conducted.
As of Wednesday morning, Israel had had 25,547 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 7,838 active patients. The death toll remains at 320, but the number of serious cases is up to 56, with 24 patients on ventilators.
The Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center warned Wednesday that if proper steps are not taken, Israel could find itself with its number of new daily cases reaching four figures within the next two weeks, as well as a sharp rise in patients in serious condition and a climbing death toll.
“Without the proper precautions taken to slow down the virus’ morbidity, within two weeks the number new daily patients could reach 1,000 a day, with serious conditions and deaths rising by dozens accordingly,” the center said.
The report said that the rather “mild” rise in cases compared to the first wave and the stabilization in the number of serious patients and those connected to ventilators is creating a “false sense of security that everything is allegedly fine.”
Between Sunday and Tuesday, Israel saw nine new coronavirus patients in serious condition – a rise of 26%.
Amid the continued steep rise in cases, a senior Health Ministry official warned on Wednesday that the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients is also showing a worrying increase.
“We are opening more and more dedicated wards for coronavirus patients. The wings are filling up, we’re seeing a rise in serious condition patients,” said Dr. Erez Onn, the head of the Hospital Division at the Health Ministry.
“Over the last few months, we have prepared the hospitalization system for a second wave, and all hospitals are prepared with dedicated wards,” he said.
Onn added that the patients in serious condition include some young people, but most are older and/or have preexisting conditions.
“This is the reason we need to protect these vulnerable sectors of society,” said Onn.
“Those who have preexisting conditions and who are older are far more susceptible to the virus and are those that most of the time become ill from it.”
As reported by Ynetnews