Two Palestinians who returned to the Gaza Strip from Pakistan last Thursday have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, Yusef Abu al-Rish, a senior official with the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health announced early Sunday.
Hamas called for the immediate lifting of the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and appealed to the international community to provide urgent medical aid to the Palestinians in the coastal enclave.
The two patients are the first confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, home to two million Palestinians.
Abu al-Rish said that the two patients were among Palestinians who had been placed in quarantine near the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
The two have since been in quarantine near the border and did not come into contact with residents of the Gaza Strip, he added.
The discovery of the two quarantined cases confirms the importance of the measures taken by the Ministry of Health regarding Palestinian travelers returning to the Gaza Strip, Abu al-Rish said.
The two patients, whose identities were not released, have been placed in quarantine at a field hospital set up near the Rafah border crossing. Palestinians who came in contact with the patients have been placed in isolation.
The Gaza-based Ministry of Health reaffirmed a series of restrictions on gatherings at wedding halls, gyms, restaurants and coffeeshops. It also announced a suspension of Friday prayers in all mosques throughout the Gaza Strip until further notice.
Shortly before the first cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the Gaza Strip, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said he has appealed to Qatar and Turkey to provide emergency aid to the Palestinians to prevent the spread of the disease.
He said the emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Tamim al-Thani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed readiness to provide the Palestinians with money and other forms of aid to help combat the virus.
Haniyeh and other Hamas officials called for an immediate removal of the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip in light of the outbreak of the virus, saying it endangered the lives of two million Palestinians living there.
Comments are closed.