Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report 57

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report 57

Issued 23 December 2020

Highlights

• The oPt has witnessed a stabilizing trend with a slight decrease in the numbers of newly confirmed COVID-19 cases
• Public health restrictions continue in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during December

The next Situation Report will be issued on 6 January, 2021

WHO preparedness, readiness and response

WHO is continuing to work with partners to support Ministry of Health’s (MoH) efforts to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Coordination, planning and monitoring​

• Public health restrictions continue in the West Bank (until 2 January) and the Gaza Strip (until 31 December)

Surveillance

• The WHO risk assessment remains very high
• ​This week, the oPt witnessed a stabilizing trend with slight decrease in newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, with a 9% drop to 10,532 cases for the reporting period. This decrease reflected a drop in case numbers in the West Bank, which offset a significant increase in cases reported in Gaza
• The number of deaths rose by 9% in the oPt and the overall Case Fatality Rate (CFR) remains at 0.9 %. The CFR is the proportion of deaths among identified confirmed cases
• On 22 and 23 December, 12 deaths were reported in Gaza, the highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic
• Gaza accounts for 39.8% of all active cases, followed by the West Bank governorates  of Nablus (15.8%), Jenin and Ramallah (7%), Hebron (6.5%), East Jerusalem (6.1%) Bethlehem (4%) and Tulkarm (3.6%).

Laboratory testing and diagnostics  ​

• The number of tests conducted in the oPt has decreased by 38% during the reporting period (18 – 23 December), with 34,879 tests conducted compared to the previous week
• In the Gaza Strip, an average of 2,194 tests per day have been conducted in the past week (17-23 December) with a positivity rate of 32%, indicating every third person is testing positive and testing needs to be scaled up. Health authorities reported enough COVID-19 tests for 15 days until 3 January, as of 23 December
• Local health authorities are strengthening staff capacity at the central laboratory to increase testing to 2,500 PCR tests per day
• WHO continues to deliver COVID-19 kits to support local testing (pictured).

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), Isolation and Case Management, Operations Support and Logistics 

• In the Gaza Strip, the overall occupancy rate of dedicated COVID19 hospital beds is 58%, with 312 of 540 beds occupied. Currently, of the 90 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, 47 or 52% are occupied, including five patients on invasive mechanical ventilation
• To support management of critical cases, WHO procured and delivered 15 patient transportation trolleys and 20 ICU beds to local health authorities in Gaza, with support from the Government of Kuwait. A further delivery was made to the West Bank (pictured).

East Jerusalem:

• As of December 23, COVID-19 patients are being treated in the two main dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, 42 at St Joseph Hospital (including 15 in the intensive Care Unit) and 15 are at Al- Makassed Hospital (including 5 in ICU). In addition, 13 COVID-19 patients are being treated at Augusta Victoria Hospital, including five patient companions.