RAMALLAH, Friday, March 27, 2020 (WAFA) – Palestine Friday morning confirmed seven new novel coronavirus cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the occupied territories to 91.
Speaking during a daily briefing in Ramallah, Government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem said that the samples for 100 suspected cases from Biddu town, northwest of Jerusalem, were tested, and the test results showed that five cases tested positive for the deadly virus.
He identified the five cases as a two-year-old female toddler, a ten-year-old child, two young men in their 20s, and a man in his 50s. The first four cases were transferred to al-Carmel Hotel in Ramallah, which functions as a quarantine center, and the fifth case to Hugo Chavez Hospital in TurmusAyya town, north of Ramallah.
He pointed out that the samples of 227 Palestinian workers who returned from Israeli settlements and Israel were tested, and the test results showed that two cases tested positive for the virus.
The two cases were identified as a man who worked as a gas station worker at the Israeli colonial settlement of Gush Etzion, north of Bethlehem, and his mother, who worked as a cleaner in a nearby settlement.
He noted that the total infected cases stood at 91, including 17 cases who fully recovered, in addition to a case that succumbed to her injury. The fatal case is that of a woman in her 60s from Biddu who died a day after she tested positive for the virus.
He slammed as baseless and unfounded allegations that there were new confirmed cases in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“We will act on the World Health Organization’s proposal to set up outdoor tents in front of the emergency sections at hospitals for the preliminary medical examination of suspected coronavirus patients,” he announced.
“We will do so especially after 32 medical staff at the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah were forced into quarantine as a result of being in touch with a patient at the internal medicine section who later tested positive for the virus,” he added.
He also pointed out that there was a shortage of coronavirus test kits in Palestine as it is the case worldwide, and affirmed the government’s strenuous efforts to secure life-saving respiratory devices and protective gear.
K.F.
