The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in Israel has more than halved over the past week, the Ministry of Health reports. 7,283 people tested positive for the virus between Friday October 16 and Thursday October 22 compared with 14,896 new cases between Friday October 9 and Thursday October 15.
Moreover the number of new Covid-19 cases is continuing to fall. Yesterday 895 people tested positive for coronavirus. This is the first time that the midweek number of new cases has fallen below 1,000 since early July. 33,788 tests were carried out yesterday, the Ministry of Health reported, with a 2.8% positive rate.
The number of seriously ill patients hospitalized with Covid-19 has fallen from 713 a week ago to 570 today and there are 223 people on respirators compared with 247 a week ago. 2,319 people have died on Covid-19 in Israel since the start of the pandemic including 27 people over the past 24 hours. 191 people have died over the past week compared with 264 fatalities the week before that.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "Israel had the highest infection rate in the world and today we have almost the lowest, and it is still going down. However, not everybody is cooperating. And so next week I will put additional measures before the cabinet against those who are violating instructions including heavy fines for educational institutions that are opening without permission."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 23, 2020
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