Israel surpasses US in number of coronavirus deaths per day, per capita

The lockdown will last much longer than 10 days, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told KAN News on Tuesday morning. 

In an interview with Aryeh Golan, he said that “The closure will not be lifted – unequivocally. There is no scenario that in 10 days we will lift everything and say, ‘everything is over, everything is fine.”

Edelstein said that the exit from the current lockdown will be done gradually, not like the first time, so as to better transition to living alongside the novel virus.

As Yom Kippur exited, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a message to the public that he was working on bolstering the nation’s health system to be able to accommodate some 1,500 serious patients by October 1. He also noted several other efforts that were underway to prepare for Israel’s exit from the quarantine.

Edelstein told KAN that while Israel hopes not to reach 1,500 serious cases, it must prepare. 

So far, some 1,507 Israelis have died from the coronavirus, the Health Ministry reported late Monday night. There are currently 65,025 people who are diagnosed with corona, including 755 in serious condition, among them 207 who are intubated. There are 1,541 people being treated in the hospitals.

Israel surpassed the United States in the number of deaths per day from coronavirus in relation to the population, a report by the Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center revealed on Tuesday.Some 1,121 people were diagnosed with coronavirus on Yom Kippur, the Health Ministry showed. The number seems low, but only 8,105 people were screened on Monday, meaning nearly 14% tested positive – a peak.

He said that if citizens continue to protest during the lockdown “it will end in thousands more patients and in more difficult patients in hospitals… We need to take responsibility.”The country has purchased hundreds of additional rapid coronavirus tests, Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch tweeted Tuesday morning. “The goal is an additional 20,000 rapid tests per day,” Kisch wrote. He said the tests will be deployed in hospitals, health funds, nursing homes and clinics, and used by the Home Front Command in its work. The test will be administered like a standard PCR swab test and require the oversight of a doctor, nurse or pharmacist.