PA urges Tulkarem residents to stay home after 2nd virus case revealed in city

Palestinian Authority Tulkarem Governor Isam Abu Bakr called on Tulkarem residents to stay in their homes for 24 hours on Monday after Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh announced that a second person from the city tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Abu Bakr’s Office said the governor urged residents to not enter public spaces in order “to preserve their health and well-being and allow for necessary tests and inquiries to be conducted.”

Earlier on Monday at a cabinet meeting, Shtayyeh said that the newly infected person was recently studying in Poland.

Palestinian authorities have said that, as of Monday, there were a total of 39 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the West Bank — 37 in Bethlehem and 2 in Tulkarem. They said the condition of 15 of them has started to improve.

Shtayyeh also said that everyone the newly infected person had been in contact with was being tested to see if they had contracted the virus.

A PA official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the person landed in Jordan on March 9 and crossed into the West Bank on March 10, the same day Israel announced the closure of the Allenby border crossing until further notice, while saying Palestinians could still return to their homes.

The official confirmed the individual was in contact with persons, including his family, before he started to experience symptoms associated with the virus and called health authorities, who tested him.

The PA General Administration of Crossings and Borders also announced on Monday that all Palestinians returning to their homes through Allenby would now be quarantined for two weeks and tested for the virus.

The PA had previously only required Palestinians who had traveled to specific countries with widespread cases of the virus to be placed in quarantine.

Shortly after Palestinian health authorities confirmed the first cases in the West Bank in early March, PA President Mahmoud Abbas declared a state of emergency for 30 days.

Shtayyeh has since announced the closure of schools and universities, the cancellation of all hotel reservations and conferences, the shuttering of tourist and religious sites, the banning of public gatherings and protests, and other measures.

He also has declared that no one would be allowed to leave or enter Bethlehem, the site of the majority of confirmed cases, except in the case of emergencies.

PA Finance Minister Shukri Bishara met Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on Monday and demanded that Israel release hundreds of millions of shekels in tax funds that it has withheld from the Palestinians over their payments to security prisoners and their families as well as wounded terrorists and the families of slain attackers, the PA Finance Ministry said in a statement.

Bishara said that handing over the funds, which come from the tax funds Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians every month, would “contribute to helping the Palestinian treasury adopt the best health-related measures to face off” the coronavirus, the statement also said.

Israel forcefully opposes the payments to the security prisoners and others, arguing that they incentivize violent attacks against Israelis. The Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership contends that they seek to provide social welfare to Palestinian families and make up for what it describes as an unfair military justice system.

Shtayyeh also said on Monday that Kuwait had donated $5.5 million to the Palestinians to confront the virus.

Last Monday, Abbas said Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani gave medical equipment valued at $10 million to the PA to fight it.