Woman, 69, and man, 74, die of virus, bringing Israel’s death toll to 23
Two more people died in Israel on Wednesday afternoon, marking Israel’s 22nd and 23rd fatalities from the coronavirus.
Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center announced the death of a 69-year-old woman as a result of the virus, saying she suffered from “severe and complicated” underlying health issues.
The Wolfson Medical Center in Holon minutes later announced that a 74-year-old man died from COVID-19. The hospital said he had been sedated and hooked up to a respirator in very serious condition and had numerous preexisting conditions.
There were no immediate details on the identities of either victim.
The announcements bring Wednesday’s virus death toll to three and came after the Health Ministry on Wednesday raised the tally of people infected with the coronavirus to 5,591 as Israel recorded its largest single-day jump in new cases.
The ministry data prior to the two latest fatalities showed 233 new cases since Tuesday night and 760 in the last 24 hours. The previous high for a 24-hour period was the 663 new cases recorded between Monday and Tuesday evenings, 527 of which were included in the latest Health Ministry tally.
There were 97 people in serious condition, three more than the previous night, with 76 of them on ventilators.
Another 118 people were in moderate condition and the rest had mild symptoms. So far, 226 Israelis have recovered from the virus.
The Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba on Wednesday morning announced the death of a 98-year-old woman. She had a number of “serious and complex” preexisting medical conditions, the hospital said.
There were no immediate details on her identity.
According to the Ynet news site, the woman was a resident of the Mishan assisted living facility in Beersheba, where 14 residents have been infected with the virus. Another 21 residents were in quarantine at the facility, according to the website. Last week, a 93-year-old resident died hours after testing positive for the virus.
There were five deaths from COVID-19 on Tuesday, including a 49-year-old single mother, the youngest person to die in Israel from the coronavirus.
Israel has been implementing increasingly stringent measures to thwart the spread of the virus, with citizens generally required to stay home, and was mulling placing a cordon around the predominantly ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, which has the highest infection rate in the country.