Gaza’s health system ‘days’ after being overwhelmed by COVID-19

Gaza, where the dense and poor population of 2 million people is vulnerable to contagion, has recorded 14,000 cases of coronavirus and 65 deaths, mostly since August.

Seventy-nine of Gaza’s 100 ventilators have been used by COVID-19 patients, said Abdelraouf Elmanama, a microbiologist who is part of the enclave’s pandemic task force.

“In 10 days, the health system will become unable to absorb such an increase in cases and there may be cases that will not find a place in intensive care units,” he said. , adding that the current 0.05% death rate in COVID-19 patients could increase.

Islamist Hamas leaders in Gaza have so far imposed a lockdown. A long-standing Israeli blockade, backed by neighboring Egypt and introduced after Hamas took control of the coastal enclave, crippled Gaza’s economy and undermined its public health apparatus.

Israel says it is trying to prevent weapons from reaching Hamas, against which it has waged three wars and whose facilities it struck earlier Sunday in retaliation for a rocket launch at the southern town of Ashkelon.

“We are not giving Hamas any ‘reduction on coronaviruses’,” Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay told Military Radio. “We will continue to respond as [we see] appropriate.”

But Shay said Israel is allowing international humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, adding: “This is the level we can preserve in the context of the coronavirus.”

Abdelnaser Soboh, head of emergency health in the Gaza sub-office of the World Health Organization, however, warned that “within a week we will become unable to treat critical cases.”

The infection rate among those tested was 21%, with a relative increase in carriers over 60, he said.

“This is a dangerous indicator because most [those over 60] may need to be hospitalized, ”Soboh added.