A total of 1,892 Israelis tested positive for coronavirus in the 24-hour period from midnight Wednesday to midnight Thursday, according to the Corona National Information and Knowledge Center's daily report for Friday, July 24.
The same period saw 26,075 tests conducted.
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Meanwhile, the number of COVID patients listed in serious condition rose to 304 on Friday, and the death toll since the start of the epidemic in Israel stood at 443.
As of Friday morning, there were 32,094 active or symptomatic patients, and 25,792 Israelis were listed as "recovered" from the virus.
Beit Shemesh, Elad, Betar Illit, Bnei Brak, Qalansawe, and Ein Mahal were all listed as "red" areas due to high numbers of new cases among their residents. Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Lod, Jerusalem, Or Akiva, Kiryat Malachi, and Nazareth have been downgraded to "orange," meaning the spread of the virus among residents is slowing.
Meanwhile, thousands of Israelis have been released from quarantine after new Health Ministry guidelines took effect that shortened the period of mandatory quarantine for asymptomatic carriers to 10 days.
In related news, the Health Ministry announced Friday that it has signed another deal to procure a corona vaccine that is still in development – this time, with the California-based Arcturus Theraputics.
The vaccine from Arcturus, LUNAR-COV19, is about to launch clinical trials in humans. Arcturus previously announced its partnership with Duke-NUS in Singapore, in which its clinical trial application was approved for Phases 1 and 2.
Arcturus is scaling up its manufacturing to enable it to produce hundreds of millions of doses across 2020 and 2021, if the vaccine trials succeed and the product is approved for distribution.
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