Israel: 9,408 Cases, 71 Deaths Including 37-Year-Old, 92-Year-Old Man Recovers From COVID-19

There are 9,408 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Israel as of Wednesday morning and 71 fatalities, six more than Tuesday night. A total of 147 patients in serious condition, of whom 122 are on ventilators.

A total of 770 Israelis have recovered from the coronavirus, including Aharon Sidman, a 92-year-old man, who was hospitalized for a week in Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva after being diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Israel’s youngest coronavirus victim passed away on Tuesday when a 37-year-old man with preexisting health conditions passed away in HaSharon Hospital in Petach Tikvah on Tuesday evening.

Deputy Director-General of the Health Ministry, Prof. Itamar Grotto, said on Tuesday that “the increase in patients is relatively moderate and lower than we feared, meaning that the steps we have taken so far against the coronavirus are successful.” However, Grotto warned that Israelis must continue to follow Health Ministry directives over Pesach and that continued testing for the virus is essential.

Israelis flocked to supermarkets (two meters apart of course) on Tuesday morning ahead of the nationwide lockdown beginning on Tuesday afternoon announced by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday evening.

Due to the intense burden on the Israeli health system caused by the coronavirus crisis, combined by the fact that many medical professionals are ill with the virus themselves or are in quarantine, thousands of Israeli medical students are volunteering to assist medical staff. Some medical students are already working in the testing process, which involves long hours and considerable risk. Others are being trained to treat coronavirus patients with breathing difficulties.

Israelis still frantic to buy eggs before Pesach can feel assured by the Foreign Ministry’s announcement that the Israeli Embassy in Ukraine “has been working with officials in the Ukrainian government to increase egg export quotas to Israel, allowing the immediate shipment of dozens of tons of eggs to Israel even before Pesach.”

Some of the eggs will arrive in Israel by ship and others by a “special El Al operation,” with the first air delivery due to land in Israel on Wednesday morning. Nine containers of eggs will arrive by sea by the end of the week.

Unfortunately, a container of eggs that landed in Ben-Gurion from Portugal on Monday broke as it was being transferred but hopefully the millions of eggs from Ukraine will make up for the unfortunate loss of those 9,000 eggs.