The British COVID variant has made its way to the Gaza Strip, health officials reported Sunday. In the 24 hours from Saturday to Sunday, Gaza has seen a record high in the number of new COVID cases.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza reported Saturday evening that the number of identified cases stood at 1,628, out of a total 3,728 tests processed – meaning that 44% of COVID tests in the past 24 hours have come back positive.
A health official in the Gaza Strip said Saturday that the true number of COVID cases in Gaza was much higher, and not reflected due to a shortage of tests. The official said that for every identified positive, there were four new cases that went unidentified. The spike in new cases was attributed to the British variant.
On Sunday morning, Gazan health officials reported two deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Gaza has seen 639 COVID-19 patients succumb to the virus. As of Sunday, there were a reported 11,734 active of symptomatic patients, including 166 who were listed in critical condition.
There is only one hospital in the Gaza Strip that treats COVID-19 patients.
In the past few weeks, a few shipments of vaccine doses have arrived in Gaza, mostly the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, whose delivery was organized by Fatah official Mohammad Dahlan and the United Arab Emirates. The Gaza Health Ministry has reported that 24,132 residents have been vaccinated.
Hamas religious authorities in Gaza announced Sunday that new regulations limiting the number of people allowed into mosques would be announced in an attempt to avoid shutting down mosques altogether.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
