The Palestinian Health Ministry announced on Wednesday evening another seven cases of the coronavirus, taking Gaza’s total confirmed cases to nine; the first two cases of COVID-19 in Gaza had been reported after two Palestinians residents, aged 79 and 63, returned recently to the Gaza Strip from Pakistan through Egypt. They were held in quarantine on their return and thendiagnosed with coronavirus.
Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement that “there are seven new cases of coronavirus in the same quarantine center.”
The statement explained that the new patients infected with the coronavirus are the police officers who came into contact with the two patients the security men who were quarantined in the same quarantine center, but stressed that neither any of them left the quarantine center or mixed with the wider population.
“There were no cases reported inside the Gaza Strip, and the newly infected cases were discovered in one of the quarantine centers,” Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, said.
"Until Wednesday evening, more than 644,000 people have been affected with coronavirus in the world and more than 21,000 have died while more than 113,000 have recovered," al-Qidra said,
According to Abdelnasser Soboh, the Director of the World Health Organization’s Gaza office, the new cases have been imported from outside of Gaza, and the symptoms were initially discovered in quarantine centers at the Rafah Crossing.
“If 50 cases were discovered from outside Gaza, they do not pose a danger to the internal community, as long as it did not appear in people who did not travel and did not come into contact with travelers,” Soboh said.According to Abdelnasser Soboh, the Director of the World Health Organization’s Gaza office, the new cases have been imported from outside of Gaza, and the symptoms were initially discovered in quarantine centers at the Rafah Crossing.
The Director of the Gaza Health Ministry, Yusef Abu al-Rishannounced last Sunday that the first two cases of Coronavirus infection were recorded in Gaza, indicating that the two cases werequarantined and they did not enter the Gaza Strip, confirming that no cases were recorded from inside the Strip.
The spread of coronavirus in the Gaza Strip would be a disaster of horrifying proportions. “Dozens of other Palestinians who entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing in the past three weeks have also been placed in quarantine in 18 different centers,” al-Rish added.
As a result of the coronavirus outbreak in the world, Mohammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, ordered the Palestinian people to stay at home for two weeks, in an effort to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
The government in the Gaza Strip and Hamas operatives continue implementing a variety of precautionary measures, including closing crossings, shutting down wedding halls, disinfectingpublic places, banning weekly street markets, and urging people to pray at home rather than in mosques. Four-hundred prisoners were released from jail, more than 200 quarantine units have been built in the northern Gaza Strip, and there are orders not to gather at events. Coordination is taking place between Hamas and Egypt, including the exchange of information about coronavirus patients.
In a statement that was released on 22 March 2020, Hamas “invited Palestinian factions and the Ministry of Health to contribute to the fight against COVID-19.”
Gaza Strip, a 60-square-kilometer (139-square-mile) stretch of land, is one of the world’s most densely populated areas, and Israel’s 13-year blockade of the territory has shattered the coastal enclave’s economy, as well as having left hospitals overburdened and understaffed, and deprived its 2 million inhabitants of free movement in and out of Gaza. Despite some minor easing in recent years, Israel has limited the import of medicines, the entry of basic amenities. and other essential items.
Israel said that it will close its borders with Gaza and the West Bank to commercial traffic, though some patients and humanitarian staff could cross.
The Health Ministry in Gaza issued an urgent appeal to the World Health Organization and other international organizations to stand with Gaza for critical medical equipment in the event of a coronavirus outbreak, including ventilators and intensive care equipment to deal with the epidemic.
“We call on international aid groups and the World Health Organization, alongside the supporters of the Palestinian people, to help the Palestinian people in this fierce fight against the coronavirus epidemic,” Hamas said in a statement.
Hamas holds Israel fully responsible for the situation in the Gaza Strip: Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Gazan Ministry of Health, said Israel is responsible for the health and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and called on the UN as well to accept responsibility.
“Israel would be responsible if the coronavirus spread in the Gaza Strip,” Khalil al-Haya, deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau, said.
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