JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israel reported a record number of nearly 9,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in a 24-hour period.
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The 8,919 confirmed infections reported Thursday morning from the previous day represent a 13.6% positivity rate. As of Thursday morning, Israel has had a total of 1,571 deaths from the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet voted late Wednesday to extend the current full lockdown meant to prevent the spread of the deadly virus by three days, though it could be longer. The Cabinet also approved fining those caught in a sukkah that is not their own.
Also Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Health Ministry to prepare hospitals to handle up to 5,000 seriously ill coronavirus patients at one time. The maximum now is 800 — a number that has already been exceeded.
The country’s embattled coronavirus czar, Dr. Ronni Gamzu, said at a news conference Thursday that some 40% of verified coronavirus cases in Israel are from the haredi Orthodox community, though they make up about 8% of the population. He said the large number of cases discovered on Wednesday was fallout from the small number of tests performed this week on Yom Kippur.
Meanwhile, Israeli news outlets such as Channel 12 reported that sukkahs with the capacity to hold hundreds of people were seen being constructed in Jerusalem, sparking fears of a continued spike in virus cases in the community.
At this rate they may yet soon truly reach herd immunity.
The testing method is totally UNscientific! It is a big fraud. The PCR was never meant to be used for detecting a specific virus & is incapable of doing so! A positive only means that you have some member of wide family of Corona viruses including the common cold or some particles of long dead virus left behind from cold even s year or more ago! The method is also wrought with big percentages of false positives especially when done under pressure like now. So realize that the high number of cases is false!!! Also many in the health care profession are getting fed up with being forced to LIE! The orders from above are to register every illness as covid19, every death as covid19 even when there is no clinical or laboratory evidence of it!!!! Yes some people get very sick some die. But no more than the flu or bacterial pneumonia! Except – except – for those that are killed by improper treatment also ordered to be used!
Lock downs won’t work . People are resenting it and are ignoring rules.
Its also inevitable that we will all get it.
Not minimizing the risks. its scary. Just saying its waste of time and money to lock down