Daily tally of confirmed virus cases falls to 14, lowest since start of outbreak

The Health Ministry announced Sunday morning that the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen to 16,458, an increase of 14 over the past 24 hours and 4 since last night.

One person died, taking the country’s death toll from COVID-19 to 248. There were no details on the identity of the fatality.

The tally of 14 cases in a single day is the lowest recorded since the Health Ministry began publishing daily updates on the spread of the virus on March 11.

According to the Health Ministry, 74 people infected with the coronavirus were in serious condition, 65 of whom were on ventilators.

Another 52 people were in moderate condition and the rest have mild symptoms.

So far, 11,384 people have recovered from the virus, while 4,826 are still sick.

There were 703 tests conducted on Sunday morning and 3,650 a day earlier — testing levels are often lower over the weekend. Israel has the lab capacity to test up to 15,000 people for COVID-19 daily but demand has gone down as fewer suspected cases show up to have swabs taken, the Health Ministry said last month.

However, unexplained discrepancies in the Health Ministry’s numbers continued to pop up, with Beit Shemesh showing one fewer cumulative case than it did on Saturday, according to the figures.

Israel on Saturday evening marked two weeks since more than 200 virus cases were recorded in any 24-hour period.

It also marked one week since there were more than 100 new cases in any one day.

After the Health Ministry announced no new deaths Saturday morning — the first time there were no fatalities during a 24-hour period since March 28 — the death toll rose by two in the evening.

Health Ministry deputy director Itamar Grotto said Sunday the coming week will prove “decisive” as to whether the government will be able to continue rolling back restrictions or will be forced to reinstate them if COVID-19 spike again, and told Army Radio that a return of cases in the summer is a real possibility.

“We are preparing for a number of scenarios in which we remain in the same situation [of some degree of restrictions] until winter and also consider the possibility of another wave in the summer,” Grotto said.

Amid the sustained drop in infections, the government has increasingly rolled back restrictions meant to curb the outbreak, opening some schools and allowing many businesses to reopen.

On Sunday morning, hundreds of thousands of children returned to daycares for the first time in almost two months, a day after some 15,000 Israelis visited national parks and nature reserves across the country after they were allowed reopen earlier this week, while on Friday thousands of Israelis flocked to beaches, despite their continued closure.

Malls and outdoor markets were allowed to reopen Thursday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that all lockdown restrictions could be removed by the middle of June and the government on Monday canceled the 100-meter limit on Israelis traveling from their homes for activities deemed nonessential, as well as measures preventing people from visiting with family. He warned, though, that Israel could have to reassess enforcing social distancing measures if there are more than 100 new coronavirus cases a day, a doubling of cases within 10 days, or over 250 people with serious symptoms in hospitals.