The number of victims of coronavirus in Israel reaches 21 after a 98-year-old patient succumbed to the virus overnight. According to the spokesperson of the Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva, where she was hospitalized, she had several previous conditions.
A total of 5,591 Israelis has been infected so far, the Health Ministry announced on Wednesday. The number marks a 206 unit increase since press time on Tuesday. Of those infected, 97 are currently in serious conditions with 76 of them intubated. Overall, 637 people diagnosed with the virus are hospitalized.
The latest victim is the second one from the Mishan Geriatric Center in Beer Sheva, where several residents and members of staff were found positive to the virus in the past few days.
On Monday and on Tuesday, five more Israelis had succumbed to the virus, including a 49-year-old woman who was treated at Shamir Medical Center in Tzrifin. The woman, a widow and a mother of two 4-year-old twin, is the country’s youngest victim.
The number of people infected continues to spike in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) city of Bnei Brak, where as of Tuesday there had been an increase of 66 sick people in one day and there are 571 people infected out of a population less than 200,000, or some 285 out of every 100,000. In Israel, an average of 53 people is infected out of every 100,000.
Health officials predict that if the trend in Bnei Brak continues, as many as 1,500 residents will be sick with coronavirus by next week, among them as many 60 to 80 people in serious condition within the next two months. For this reason, the government is considering imposing a full lockdown on the city, as well as on other haredi cities and towns in which the number of people infected with coronavirus keeps on rising.
On Wednesday, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said in an interview to radio Kan Bet that there are several hundred sick people “unwilling to cooperate” and that the authorities might force them to transfer to the hotels designated for coronavirus patients. He added that overnight several patients had already accepted to move to the facilities.
So far, more than 851,000 people have been infected across the world and over 42,000 have died.
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