The tally of Israel's coronavirus cases came to 82,515 over the weekend, the Health Ministry said Sunday.
There are currently 24,433 active cases. Some 934 patients are said to be in serious condition, of whom 118 are on ventilators. Some 190 patients are in moderate contusions and the rest are either asymptotic or experiencing mild syndromes.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
As of Saturday, 597 Israelis have died from COVID-19, the diseased caused by the coronavirus.
According to Health Ministry data, 622 nurses, 289 doctors and 1,288 other medical personnel are currently in isolation after having been exposed to the virus.
Also over the weekend, healthcare official warned that the second corona outbreak gripping Israel is exhausting its ability to use lifesaving ECMO machines in hospital corona wards.
The extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine has proven vital in treating corona patients in serious condition. There are currently 15 patients on ECMO machines, which provide prolonged cardiac and respiratory support to patients whose heart and lungs are failing.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in Israel, 42 patients have been placed in ECMO and the treatment has been able to save upwards of 50% of them – a success rate similar to that reported worldwide.
In many ways, ECMO is critical corona patients' last chance to survive the virus, but Israel is dangerously low on these machines.
Israel had 35 ECMO machines when the pandemic first hit the country and had since acquired 30 others, of which 17 have already arrived. However, not all machines have been deployed at this time.
Currently, the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer has eight ECMO machines, followed by the Rabin Medical Center in Petach Tikva (7), Hadassah Medical Campus in Jerusalem, the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center, the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba, and the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv (3), the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center in Be'er Ya'akov, and Poriya Hospital in Tiberias (2), and Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, which has one ECMO machine.
"The ECMO machine has become a major player in the fight against corona. This is an investment that proves itself because it saves lives," said Dr. Yigal Kassif, Sheba's director of ECMO Services.
"We see patients recover and go back to being active. Right now we're in the midst of an outbreak and hospitals are helping each other, but the cost of ECMO services is that in many cases, hospitals have to reduce [the number of] beds in the intensive care unit," he said.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
