July Turns Into Deadliest Month in Israel’s Fight With Coronavirus

Coronavirus infections in Israel showed no signs of slowing down Friday, as nearly 1,800 new cases were diagnosed, bringing the total number of cases across the 70,000 threshold. Equally troublesome is the infection rate remaining a high 9% over the past 24 hours. More than 320 Israelis are seriously ill with the virus and as of Friday morning 503 have died since the outbreak of the pandemic. July appears to be the deadliest month, COVID-19-wise, Israel has experienced to date, with 45,000 out of the 70,000 infections occurring this month alone. Of the 503 deaths, 200 came within the past 30 days. On July 1, only 56 patients were considered seriously ill, while today that number has grown by a factor of nearly 6. In related news, store owners and shopping mall operators have announced they will disregard government ordinances and open their places of business to the public over the weekend. Last weekend, the government blinked first when restaurant owners decided to flaunt the emergency decrees, only to see the government back down and announce, late Friday evening, that restaurants would be indeed allowed to open.