PA records no new cases of coronavirus - Middle East

PA “health minister” says no new cases of COVID-19 were registered in the last 24 hours. The total number of recoveries is 483.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) “health minister” Mai Al-Kaila said on Tuesday that no new cases of COVID-19 were registered in PA-assigned territories in the last 24 hours, reports the Xinhua news agency.

She said that eight cases have recovered, including six in Hebron and two in Gaza. The total number of recovered cases have reached 483 in Judea and Samaria, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem, which the PA includes in its tally despite it being under Israeli sovereignty.

Al-Kaila said that 114 cases are still unresolved, including 60 in eastern Jerusalem, 18 in Hebron, and 36 in the southern districts.

On Monday, PA cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh declared an end to the two-month long lockdown that was imposed in early March with the discovery of the first cases of coronavirus in Bethlehem.

At the same time, he warned that if the number of cases increase, the lockdown will be re-imposed.

The decision to remove the lockdown comes about ten days after PA health authorities said that no new coronavirus cases had been reported in the PA.

Shtayyeh recently announced a partial ease on the lockdown restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

That announcement came a day after PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas agreed to extend the state of emergency that was declared over the spread of coronavirus until June 5.