For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit Israel, the number of active cases has surpassed the number of people who have recovered from it, the Health Ministry said Monday.
According to the National Coronavirus Information and Knowledge Center, 1,135 new patients were diagnosed over the past 24 hours, bringing the number of active cases to 19,600, compared to 19,267 recorded recoveries.
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Since March, 38,670 COVID-19 cases and 362 deaths have been recorded. Some 1,120,592 tests for the virus have taken place, 19,189 of them on Sunday alone.
As the outbreak tightens its grip on Israel, nurses nationwide threatened to go on strike Monday, citing gross manpower shortages during pandemic.
Over 750 nurses have been quarantined over suspected exposure to the virus, while hospitals across the country are reopening coronavirus wards without adding nursing staff.
National Association of Nurses Chairwoman Ilana Cohen warned Monday that "the nurses are collapsing. It is simply no longer possible for us to continue [working]. What we need at the moment is manpower."
The organization declared a labor dispute last month, stating that heavy workload damaged nurses' ability to properly care for patients.
The nurses' step came against the backdrop of a warning by health officials that the mass protest held in Tel Aviv on Saturday against the government's economic policies amid the pandemic, could result in a spike in new COVID-19.
Speaking with Army Radio, Health Ministry Director General Hezy Levy blasted the demonstrators' failure to observe social distancing rules.
"I sympathize with the protesters' pain and concern, but it was a dangerous gathering that I fear will translate into a spike in the number of infections," he said.
Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch also condemned the protest, which was attended by some 10,000, going as far as calling it a "health terrorist attack."
Meanwhile, the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said it will convene on Tuesday to discuss the growing number of complaints about malfunctions in the tracking of coronavirus patients' phones.
The Shin Bet security agency has been tasked with tracking patients' mobile phones as part of the Health Ministry's epidemiological inquiries. The move aims to help the ministry contact those who were exposed to a COVID patient, as they must self-isolate and be tested.
But since the agency reinstated the tracking, thousands of Israelis claim they were ordered into isolation over faulty placement by the tracking systems.
The Health Ministry has set up an appeals process for those who claim they could not have been where the system claims they were, but that, too, is failing.
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