On Sunday evening, officials at Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed a 39th case of the COVID-19 new coronavirus had been diagnosed.
“Ten more patients were diagnosed today,” Health Ministry spokesperson Eyan Basson said. “Five of them came from abroad; they were from Italy, Spain, Belgium and two from Austria. Five more were contacts from verified ‘known’ patients.” These were patients 30 through 39, he said.
Up to this point, all of the cases were traced to prior cases either with tourists who carried the virus or with others who had been infected abroad.
But this time, the circumstances around the infection of one of the patients is not so clear. Patient 29 is a man in his early 40s who lives in central Israel, and if the manner of his transmission cannot be clarified, it may represent Israel’s first case of community spread.
“The source of the infection is currently unknown,” said Health Ministry spokesperson Eyal Basson on Sunday night. “The patient is in isolation. Full details of the epidemiologic investigation and the exact locations [where the patient has spent his time] will be announced shortly,” he added.
On a separate topic, in light of the widespread infection in the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Bethlehem, Israel’s Health Ministry also urged Sunday evening that anyone who has been in that area for the past 14 days to enter self-quarantine.
In addition, the ministry warned the new coronavirus has been isolated as a sole cause of pneumonia, and urged Israelis to be aware that the symptoms of the virus appear similar, but are not the same.