The number of coronavirus cases in the Gaza Strip has risen to over 1,000 from almost zero confirmed cases just two weeks ago. Nine fatalities have been recorded. The outbreak is not confined to one area, with clusters of cases diagnosed across the Strip. The Gaza Strip’s health system was inadequate even before the pandemic began due to its leaders spending most of their time and resources in attacking Israel rather than developing resources for their citizens. Last week, Hamas health officials said if the number of virus cases surpasses 2,000, their health system will collapse. Dr. Ahmed el-Rabii, 37 is the first Gaza doctor diagnosed with COVID-19 and is among dozens of health-care workers infected during the local outbreak, which was detected late last month. The spread among front-line workers has further strained an already overburdened health-care system. Speaking from one of the two hospitals designated to treat coronavirus cases, el-Rabii said the threat in many ways is more terrifying than war. During fighting, “you only fear being hit by shrapnel by mistake,” he said. “But with the virus, you constantly worry because you do not know how or from where it will hit you: from a patient, from your colleague, or by touching the elevator or any other surface.” Since 2007, Gaza has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade meant to isolate Hamas, the Islamic militant group that seized control of the territory that year from the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The blockade is believed to have played a key role in slowing the arrival of the coronavirus. Few people can move in and out of the territory, and Hamas placed anyone returning to Gaza into mandatory quarantine centers for three weeks. Before last month, the handful of Gaza’s coronavirus cases were confined to the isolation facilities. But on Aug. 24, the first cases were detected among the general population, and the numbers have multiplied since. The outbreak has been especially hard for Gaza’s medical workers. For more than a decade, they have been on the front lines treating injuries during conflicts with Israel. They have worked in an ailing health system gutted by the blockade and intra-Palestinian political feuding that left doctors, nurses and other medical workers with only partial salaries. Now, the virus is straining medical workers physically, mentally and financially. Ahmed Shatat, a Health Ministry official, said at least 68 medical workers have been infected. Experts have warned that a wider outbreak in Gaza, home to some 2 million Palestinians, could be catastrophic because of the fragile health sector. “Gaza’s health system is woefully underequipped to cope with a large outbreak, with only enough intensive care beds and ventilators to cope with a few dozen serious cases,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned last week. Shatat said there already was a shortage of medical workers even before the outbreak. To help alleviate a staffing crunch, the Hamas’ Health Ministry has shortened the mandatory quarantine times for doctors and nurses who may have been exposed to the virus, from three weeks to two weeks. But it is still struggling to sufficiently staff the quarantine centers and isolation hospitals. Hundreds of workers are in protective isolation due to possible exposure, and pregnant workers and those with underlying health issues are excluded. “Advanced health systems in the world […]
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