A medical ventilator. Photo: Przemysław Jahr via Wikicommons.

CTech – The number of confirmed coronavirus (Covid-19) cases in Israel reached 15,589 on Tuesday, but the number of recoveries continues to exceed the number of new diagnoses.

According to Israel’s Ministry of Health, the number of Israelis who have recovered from the virus now stands at 7,375, while 208 people have died from the disease throughout the country so far. The number of people in severe condition has also continued to drop, from 136 on Thursday to 117 on Tuesday, with 94 of them requiring connection to ventilators. Israel has a total of 2,391 ventilator beds.

A health ministry announcement said it is capable of conducting up to 15,000 coronavirus tests a day throughout the country, roughly half of the goal set out by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of the outbreak. On Saturday, 9,031 Israelis were tested for Covid-19 while 160 tests came back positive. On Monday, 9,546 were conducted with only 110 tests showing positive results.

Given the decrease in new diagnoses and the gradual easing of restrictions, preschools, daycares, and grades one through three are expected to resume in-class instruction as of Sunday, subject to a situation assessment this Friday. The outline that has been formulated by the Ministry of Education is to split the classrooms into groups of 15 children on average. According to the model, the children will be taught intermittently and not throughout the entire week. In elementary schools, in-class instruction will be held on Sundays through Thursdays, and recess breaks will be staggered to avoid further exposure.

Netanyahu chaired a discussion on Monday with the chairmen of the open-air market committees in order to formulate an outline for the gradual reopening of the markets.