Seriously ill virus patients had prior health issues; condition of 2 worsens

The six seriously ill coronavirus patients in Israel are all elderly and had existing medical conditions prior to contracting the disease, according to Hebrew media reports on Wednesday.

In statements released Wednesday afternoon, the hospitals treating them said that the conditions of two of the seriously ill patients have deteriorated, with both of them being unconscious and connected to respirators.

One of the patients is a 72-year-old woman at Petah Tikva’s Beilinson Hospital, the medical center said.

The second is a man being treated at Ramat Gan’s Sheba Medical Center, outside of Tel Aviv.

Another of the six had to be resuscitated overnight at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek medical center, but is now stable, Channel 12 said.

In total, 431 people have been diagnosed with the disease in Israel, the overwhelming majority of them — 415, or 96.3% — have either light symptoms or have already recuperated from the illness, according to the Health Ministry.

In addition to the six patients in serious condition, another 12 are moderately ill, the ministry said.

The total number of Israelis infected with the novel coronavirus increased sharply Wednesday with the Health Ministry announcing 96 news cases, bringing the total number of Israelis with the disease to 433.

The number includes 11 people who have recovered from the virus and been released from hospitals.

The ministry said 260 people are hospitalized, and 76 are in home isolation, including eight people in a special hotel outfitted this week to hold those with mild symptoms.

The jump came a day after Israel drastically ratcheted up measures aimed at slowing the spread of the disease, ordering Israelis to remain at home unless they need to leave for work, supplies or some other essential reasons.

The increase in numbers may be due to more testing being done, Dr. Arnon Afek of Sheba Medical Center told Channel 12 news.

Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov told Army Radio that he fears hospitals may soon be overrun with cases, and doctors would be unable to treat everyone.

“We’ll reach many hundreds of new patients in a day and even more than that,” he warned.

At a press conference Tuesday night, Bar Siman-Tov warned that thousands of Israelis could die of the virus if contagion measures were not adhered to.

“We assess that scenarios like in Italy and Spain can happen here too,” Bar Siman-Tov said. “In the coming days… the rate of new cases will rise — to 100 a day or more. We may come to a situation of hundreds more [cases] each day,” he said.

In the end, he said, “people will die — possibly even in the next few days.”

“Unfortunately, in scenarios we have, many thousands [of Israelis] could die,” he said.