Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that the Zionist entity was again in the midst of a “major outbreak” as the number of active coronavirus cases passed 10,000 for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re now dealing with a major outbreak of coronavirus in Israel,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook.
“At the start of the week we were with a figure of 450 infected and today we’re at nearly 1,000 infected a day.”
He said new restrictions that took effect Friday morning were necessary to contain the outbreak and called on Israelis to adhere to social-distancing guidelines, among them mandatory mask-wearing in public places.
“I know that wearing a mask irritates all of us in the Israeli heat of July, but there’s no choice,” the premier said.
The Israeli Health Ministry said there were 10,060 active cases, including 566 recorded since midnight. The figure overtook the previous high of 9,808 active infections recorded on April 15.
Among the active cases, 77 Israelis were in serious condition, of whom 27 were on ventilators. Another 69 Israelis were in serious condition and the rest had mild symptoms or were asymptotic, Israeli media reported.
Of the 28,055 Israelis who have been infected since the outbreak began in Israel, 17,699 have recovered.
The ministry announced an additional fatality from the virus, bringing the death toll to 326.
It also said 24,732 coronavirus tests were performed Thursday, during which 1,130 new cases were confirmed. Both those figures marked single-day records.
Source: Israeli media
