Gaza resumes coronavirus testing, but equipment remains in short supply
COVID-19 testing has resumed in the Gaza Strip with kits from the World Health Organization, but testing supplies will soon run out again in the impoverished enclave.
The Gaza Strip has resumed testing for the coronavirus, a Health Ministry spokesperson said Monday after Israel allowed the delivery of five World Health Organization-purchased testing kits into the impoverished enclave.
“We need to carry out these tests all the time and therefore, we are in need of thousands of testing kits,” said spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra.
Last week, health authorities in the Hamas-run coastal strip said because they had run out of testing kits, hundreds of people waiting on results would have to remain in quarantine. Abdullatif Alhaj, an official in Gaza’s Health Ministry, told Al-Monitor the five new kits were enough to conduct 480 tests, the results of which will take about a week.
Thirteen cases of the novel coronavirus have been diagnosed in Gaza so far. The Health Ministry has converted more than a dozen schools into quarantine centers for those returning to the Gaza Strip.
