Israel: Coronavirus case count hikes up to 39
In case of patient 29, the circumstances of transmission were not immediately clear
The number of Israelis who have contracted coronavirus has risen to 39 Sunday evening, the health ministry announced.
According to local media, the 29th patient, a man in his early 40s from central Israel, could represent a new phase in the containment efforts, since the circumstances of transmission in his case were not immediately clear.
In all previous cases the infection could be tracked back either to contact with tourists carrying the virus or was contracted abroad.
Earlier in the day caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was still weighing to up the measures to prevent a COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in the country by imposing a mandatory 14 day quarantine on all arrivals to Israel, whether foreign tourists or Israeli nationals returning from trips abroad.
Speaking to i24NEWS earlier in the day, Professor Ehud Davidson, CEO of Clalit Health Services, said that Israel was "in control of the disease, unlike other countries," stressing that the Israeli government knew how each of the patients confirmed so far got infected.
The reverse scenario, where the authorities are incapable of tracing the spread of the disease, is the point where control is lost, he explained.