Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Update, April 8, 2020
Palestinian Ministry of Health In Gaza with some Governmental Institutions continue their successive precautionary measures to tackle the new coronavirus outbreak in Gaza Strip as follows:
1. MOH confirmed 13 cases in the Gaza Strip, eight of them have recovered, and five still under observation.
2. Most of the cases are asymptomatic and no critical cases reported. All the cases are under observation at an isolated corona health facility at Rafah city; contacts tracing had been initiated for all cases.
3. MOH in Gaza has approved a set of measures to end the mandatory quarantine of 1018 returnees in the designated centers out of which 233 of them are medical staff and security who were providing medical and protection services.
4.MOH has received a limited amount of medical aid from international organizations. These quantities are not enough to enable us to face the corona pandemic outbreak today we are running with no test reagent to diagnose corona any more.
5. MOH calls upon the relevant international authorities in Ramallah and international organizations to donate sufficient amounts of PCR reagents given that our laboratories in Gaza are able to perform the test accurately and efficiently.
6. We call upon all the local and international stakeholders to assume their role in supporting our urgent needs to confront the coronavirus outbreak. For a long time MoH in Gaza suffers from a shortage in 44% of medicines, 31% of medical consumables, personal protective equipment PPE, 65% of laboratory supplies, medical devices.
7. MOH in Gaza urgently needs 100 ventilators and 140 ICU beds to achieve a proper first response to face the coronavirus outbreak.
Ministry of Health – Gaza
April 8, 2020
