Virus death toll climbs to 210, with just 173 new infections in 24 hours

Health Ministry data shows continued drop in number of daily confirmed cases

By ToI Staff 28 April 2020, 10:29 pm

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Medical staff at the coronavirus unit, in Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center, Bnei Brak, Israel, April 27, 2020. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

The Health Ministry on Tuesday night raised the national death toll from the coronavirus to 210, with two more fatalities since the morning, as data showed a continued slowdown of daily infection rates.

Just 173 new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 15,728, according to the ministry. Of the ill, 116 were in serious condition, 92 of them on ventilators, and another 82 were in moderate condition while the vast majority were displaying mild symptoms.

The ministry said 7,772 have recovered from the disease — almost half of all confirmed cases.

There was no information immediately available on the latest deaths.

In recent days, Israel’s infection rate has appeared to fall off significantly, with only dozens of new cases being reported every 12 hours, and the government has announced steps to ease restrictions on businesses and travel. On Monday morning, the ministry reported just 68 new cases since Sunday morning, the lowest number since mid-March, when cases first began to ramp up. On Tuesday, the ministry announced another 123 new cases since the day before.

A man wearing a protective suit for fear of coronavirus does his shopping in Jerusalem city center after the government eased some lockdown measures that it had imposed in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus, on April 27, 2020.
(Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Earlier Tuesday, the Health Ministry said Israel now has the lab capacity to test up to 15,000 people for COVID-19 daily but demand has gone down as fewer suspected cases show up to have swabs taken.

Israel has been struggling, along with many other countries, to raise the number of tests it performs per day, and in recent days that number has dropped below 10,000, coinciding with a marked decrease in the number of confirmed cases reported since the start of the week.

Due to a downturn in coronavirus test referrals and “a decrease in the number of people with coronavirus symptoms who want to be tested,” the ministry said that the number of people being tested has gone down, with only 9,031 tests performed on Saturday, of which 160 were found to be COVID-19 positive.

On Sunday, 8,393 tests were performed and 88 people were found to be positive. On Monday, 9,546 tests were performed and 110 people were found positive.

The ministry announced that it plans to launch random testing initiatives in areas with high infection rates to make up for the lack of sick patients seeking tests. It said a recently signed deal with the China-based Beijing Genomics Institute will soon allow Israel to conduct up to 20,000 daily tests.