1,801 New Confirmed Coronavirus Cases; Death Toll Up to 554

The Health Ministry reported Tuesday morning that 1,801 Israelis tested positive for coronavirus in the previous day.

There are currently 24,764 active coronavirus cases. 349 patients are hospitalized in serious condition with 97 of them on ventilators.

Health authorities had received the results of 22,396 virus tests conducted on Monday, a contagion rate of 8.4%.

13 people succumbed on Monday to complications of coronavirus, raising the country’s death toll to 554.

At the top of the list of cities defined as “red,” which are under threat of a lock down in the near future, is Modi’in Illit, which has the largest jump in the number of patients in the past week in relation to population size. The city has 749 active patients, of whom 393 were added in the last week. Other cities on the list include Elad with 559 patients, of whom 249 were added this week; Bnei Brak with 2,088 active patients, 699 of them over the last week.

More than 400,000 Israelis were instructed to enter quarantine during July because of possible contact with confirmed carriers of coronavirus.

People entered quarantine after instructions were delivered following phone tracing by the Shin Bet, epidemiological investigations, and by their own initiative.

Some 224,000 citizens were told to self-isolate after the Shin Bet tracking system alerted them of possible contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient while only 67,000 were instructed so as a result of investigations conducted by health officials.

About 100,000 Israelis decided to self-quarantine out of an abundance of caution.