West Bank, East Jerusalem virus cases reported

A new coronavirus carrier has been identified in the West Bank, bringing the number of cases in the Palestinian territories to 274, Palestinian Authority government spokesman Ibrahim Milhelm announces.

The latest case, similar to the vast majority of them in the West Bank, is of a worker who returned from Israel. The 27-year-old Hebron man had returned to the West Bank last Friday, immediately entering home quarantine before he began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

Haaretz reports that a man in the Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem has also tested positive for the virus, raising fears of rapid spread through the crowded neighborhood.

According to the paper, the man worked at a Jerusalem old-age home, where he apparently contracted the virus, and has been self-quarantining. His family is being tested as well.

— with Jacob Magid