Israel shuts down its last COVID ward
Officials at Jerusalem’s Herzog Medical Centre closed the COVID ward, Israel’s last one in operation, on Sunday.
Health workers at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem stationed in the coronavirus ward, Feb. 9, 2022. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90
The ward’s closure means that future COVID patients will be treated in regular hospital wards.
Herzog’s COVID ward opened in August 2020, treating 2,000 patients. It was Israel’s only COVID ward to operate continuously from the time it opened.
“We are closing the department with a sense of joy and pride. There is a feeling of real joy that the corona event, with its severe consequences – is behind us. Now, at the end of the tremendous work and crazy effort of the team – it is allowed to be wrapped in pride,” said Herzog director Dr Kobi Haviv.
“We are the only hospital in Israel that worked and treated the Corona patients continuously. The hospital staff was stretched to the limit during the waves of infection. We diverted personnel from the routine departments in order to increase the treatment of the Corona patients. For close to three years, we conducted ourselves according to the accordion method, with the transfer of medical and paramedical personnel between the departments, as needed,” he said.
There are currently 10,750 active cases in Israel, of which 21 are considered serious or critical, according to Health Ministry figures.
The Health Ministry recorded 12,487 Israeli deaths from the coronavirus since an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor became the country’s first fatality on March 20, 2020.
An estimated 6.8 million people have died of COVID worldwide.
