Flights from US, S. Korea bring 100 ventilators, chemicals for 100k virus tests
Plane from Seoul also carries some 50,000 personal protective suits for Israeli medical staff
Flights bringing much-needed ventilators and coronavirus test components from the US and South Korea respectively landed in Israel Wednesday, the Defense Ministry said.
A Korean Air jet carrying enough chemical reagents to conduct some 100,000 PCR coronavirus tests arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, some 50,000 personal protective suits for medical staff were also brought on the flight. The operation was conducted alongside the Foreign Ministry and the IDF.
Meanwhile, 100 ventilators bought from the US arrived in Israel on a cargo flight from New York in an effort coordinated with the US government. The Defense Ministry noted that the ventilators were purchased from the West Coast and did not originate from the US state most hard hit by coronavirus.
The shipment from Seoul follows a similar one last week, when an El Al plane carrying enough chemical reagents to perform tens of thousands of coronavirus tests arrived from Seoul.
The shortage in such chemicals had been flagged recently as a cause for a slowdown in testing, seen as critical to curbing the spread of the pandemic in the country.
As a result of a joint operation of the Israel Ministry of Defense, @IDF & @IsraelMFA, a vital shipment of reagents for approximately 100K COVID-19 TESTS, & approximately 50K protective suits for medical staff, arrived recently on a flight from South Korea to Israel. pic.twitter.com/TF8vNQb0S0
— Ministry of Defense (@Israel_MOD) April 15, 2020
As of Wednesday, 126 people have died of the virus in Israel, with 12,200 infected.
The Health Ministry said 176 people were in serious condition, and 132 of them on ventilators. Another 173 were in moderate condition, with the vast majority displaying mild symptoms. The ministry said 2,309 have recovered from the virus.
The Health Ministry said 9,459 coronavirus tests were administered between Sunday at midnight and Monday at midnight, and that figure was later adjusted to 10,401, marking a significant rise in testing but still falling short of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of 30,000 daily tests. By Tuesday, the number of daily tests rose to 11,501.
Israel on Tuesday evening went into nationwide lockdown for the end of the Passover holiday and the Mimouna festival, which has seen inter-city travel banned and bakeries shuttered until Thursday morning, to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
The country’s health czar on Sunday evening warned Israelis against backsliding on their practice of social distancing and adherence to quarantine restrictions, saying the coronavirus could come back with a vengeance.
“I understand it’s hard to stay at home for so long, and the public is proving its ability to keep to the regulations and protect everyone’s families,” Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman-Tov said in a statement.
Israeli health officials were expecting a surge in coronavirus deaths in the next 10 days, according to a Friday report.
The rise in deaths does not signify an increase in infections, however. Patients who are already hospitalized and on ventilators are likely to succumb to the virus in the coming days, according to predictive models from the Health Ministry, Channel 13 reported.
Almost all of those who have died from COVID-19 in Israel have been elderly and suffered from preexisting conditions, according to hospital officials.
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.
The Times of Israel Community.