麻豆APP

Coronavirus disease 2019?(COVID-19) Situation Report 46

Information for period: 5 March – 1 October 2020

• COVID-19 cases across the occupied Palestinian territory in September rose by 40%, and?by?84% in the Gaza Strip
• WHO delivered?COVID-19 lab testing kits,?supplies and reagents?to?the?West Bank and the Gaza Strip?over?the past?week?to address the shortage of?testing?kits
• The?UK?Government?has reprogrammed WHO funding to support the?critical?scale up of laboratory testing in?the?Gaza?Strip, through the?COVID-19?Inter-Agency Response plan

WHO is continuing to work with partners to support Ministry of Health’s (MoH) efforts to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

• In the Gaza Strip,?the?Gaza-Egypt Rafah crossing?opened?for three days?(on?27 September 2020), allowing exit of?2,659?people to Egypt, and entry of approximately?1,700?Palestinians to Gaza. All returnees were?quarantined on arrival?for a compulsory period of 7 days, to be tested on day five of?the?quarantine
• The?lockdown?in Israel?continues?and has been extended?until?October 14

WHO procured and delivered 8,000 COVID-19 tests to the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health in Ramallah to cover immediate gaps in testing capacities for COVID-19 and to ensure continuity of efforts to contain the pandemic in the?oPt.?This delivery was made possible thanks to the support of the Government of Germany.?

Surveillance??

• The WHO risk assessment remains very high?as?the?number?of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 continues to?increase
• The total number of COVID-19 cases in September rose by 20,603 or 40%, an average?of?686?cases per day in the?oPt.
• In the Gaza Strip, cases have risen by 84% or 2,592, an average of?86?cases per day for the same period. With most cases linked to community transmission.
• Three hundred and seventy-six have died in the oPt, with an overall case?fatality rate?(CFR) of 0.67%
• The?MoH?announced on 28 September that the recovery rate has increased to 80.3 per cent and recorded the highest number of recovery cases – 1,665 cases – since the beginning of the pandemic.

• A total of?416,569?laboratory samples have been tested for COVID-19 according to the?MoH
• In both the Gaza Strip and?the?West Bank,?WHO has delivered?laboratory?supplies, testing kits and reagents to?conduct?up to 30,000 COVID-19 tests.?These new supplies will allow testing to continue and scale-up efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Thanks for the generous support of the Government of?Kuwait, the Government of Germany?and?UK Aid.

• 34,191?Palestinians are in quarantine?(home or facility-based) to prevent further spread of the?disease
• In?the Gaza Strip,?1,806?people are in one of?10?quarantine?facilities which include health?facilities,?hotels?and other designated buildings
• Additionally, WHO continues to coordinate and support the delivery of vital medical equipment for the COVID-19 response across Gaza and the West Bank (see images for detail).

WHO delivered 8 pallets of Personal Protective Equipment?items including 10,000?N95 masks, 10,000 face shields and 10,000 shoe covers to ensure protection of frontline health workers in COVID-19 health?facilities.?Thanks to the support of?EU Humanitarian Aid. ?

• Palestinian patients continue?to face substantial barriers to accessing essential healthcare due to restrictions on movement between parts of the oPt
• From 6 September, following extensive advocacy and negotiations, WHO?initiated a temporary coordination mechanism to support patients and their companions requiring exit from the Gaza Strip. WHO submitted 139 patient permit applications and 153 companion applications during the?month.?Read more about?
• In August, while West Bank referrals continued at levels?similar to?those prior to COVID-19, referrals for patients from the Gaza Strip remained less than half the number they were prior to April 2020
• Recorded permit approvals for Gaza patients were approximately 10% of the monthly approvals prior to the COVID-19 outbreak in the oPt, while little data has been available for West Bank permit approvals since the end to coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli authorities in May 2020. Read?.