Palestine says 100,000 virus swabs damaged by Israel

A health worker, affiliated to Palestinian Health Ministry, collects a nasal swab sample for a coronavirus (COVID-19) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in Gaza City, Gaza on September 21, 2020 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]

Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kailah on Tuesday accused Israel of damaging 100,000 swabs for coronavirus by hindering the passage of clinical materials from Jordan to the West Bank.

Speaking to the official Voice of Palestine Radio, al-Kailah said that the Israeli measures have caused a shortage of swabs necessary for testing the virus.

“What is available at the ministry is sufficient to conduct examinations for only three days,” she said, adding that there were “promises” that the next batch of swabs will arrive by Wednesday.

There was no comment from Israeli authorities on the accusation.

Israel controls the Al-Karama border crossing, the only crossing point between the West Bank and Jordan.

On Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities recorded five deaths, and 557 new virus infections, raising the tally to 46,634, including 314 deaths, and 33,602 recoveries.

READ: WHO supplies Gaza with COVID-19 testing kits amid shortage

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.