Corona milestone: For 1st time, Israelis recovered from disease outnumber sick

Of the 15,782 confirmed cases in Israel, 7,929 have recovered.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Israel had reason to celebrate more than just its independence on Wednesday. The number of those recovered from the coronavirus has passed for the first time the number of those ill with the disease, the Health Ministry revealed.

Of the 15,782 confirmed cases in Israel, 7,929 have recovered. Of the 7,641 still suffering from the disease, 120 are listed as in serious condition and 91 are on ventilators. Eighty-five are in moderate condition.

While the number of serious cases are up slightly from the 117 listed on Tuesday, that number was a drop of 9 percent since Monday.

Although 212 Israelis have died, the country’s corona numbers have continued to improve over the last few days. On Tuesday, Health ministry statistics showed the number of hospitalized dropping to 354, less than half the 783 needing hospitalization on April 15. Tuesday was the second day in a row with less than 150 new corona cases in Israel.

Even the frightening case of an 11-year-old girl hospitalized in serious condition had improved by Tuesday.

Israel has loosened restrictions on movement and the economy amid the hopeful signs that the worst of the pandemic is behind it. A panel of Israelis, including economists and epidemiologists, presented an exit strategy plan for reopening shopping malls to the National Economic Council on Monday.

Israel’s Education Ministry says the country’s preschools and primary schools will reopen next week.

Some 1 million Israelis, an astonishing one-quarter of its workforce, had been laid off or went out of business during the pandemic.

Israel has temporarily tightened restrictions for Independence Day, which falls on Wednesday. The country fears that the holiday which involves large public gatherings in normal times will spark a resurgence of the disease.

The Health Ministry hopes to keep tabs on the coronavirus’s spread through careful testing. It has contracted with a China-based company to test up to 20,000 a day.