Israel: Almost 5,000 new virus cases as lockdown looms

JERUSALEM

Nearly 5,000 more coronavirus infections were reported in Israel on Tuesday.

In a statement, Israel's Health Ministry said 4,973 new cases have raised the overall count to 162,273, including 1,141 deaths and 120,443 recoveries.

The ministry said 533 patients are in critical condition and 140 are on respirators.

Over the past week, coronavirus cases in Israel have spiked to the highest levels since the outbreak started in the country in March.

The government will impose a nationwide three-week lockdown starting this Friday in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus.

This will be the second mass lockdown in the country, with the first one lifted in May when recoveries started outnumbering the drastically declining number of infections.

Since first being detected in Wuhan, China in December, COVID-19 has claimed almost 930,000 lives in 188 countries and regions.

The US, India, Brazil, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries.

Over 29.3 million cases have been reported worldwide, with recoveries exceeding 19.88 million, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.