Eight-day-old baby infected, Israel’s youngest coronavirus patient
Boy hospitalized with high fever at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, in good condition; mother, with no symptoms, waiting results of her test
An eight-day-old baby was diagnosed with the coronavirus on Tuesday, becoming Israel’s youngest COVID-19 patient.
The boy was admitted to the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon on Monday with a high fever. Tests discovered he had the virus, the hospital said.
Doctors said he was in good condition.
His mother, who is not showing any symptoms, has also been tested and is awaiting results. She was with him in the isolation ward, the hospital said.
The baby, from the city of Beit Shemesh, was born at Hadassah Hospital, Mount Scopus. It was not clear where he was infected.
The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic in Israel rose to 121 on Tuesday evening, the Health Ministry said.
The updated ministry figures of 11,868 infections across the country represented a rise of over 600 cases in 24 hours. The ministry said 181 people were in serious condition, 136 of them on ventilators. Another 168 were in moderate condition, with the vast majority displaying mild symptoms.
The ministry said 2,000 have recovered from the virus.
Almost all of those who have died from COVID-19 in Israel have been elderly and suffered from preexisting conditions, according to hospital officials. The novel coronavirus has been spreading quickly in nursing homes around the country, raising intense concern for the safety of elderly residents.
Experts have pointed to the relatively slow rise in the number of patients on ventilators as a source of potential encouragement, and also note the relatively slow rise in the number of new cases.
More than 119,000 people have died globally of the coronavirus.
