Israeli army heads to people's homes to care for COVID-19 patients

To ease the situation for hospitals, the Israeli army's medical squad sent staff out this week to care for COVID-19 patients in their homes.

Dozens of teams, made up of a doctor, nurse and driver, are initially visiting 250 sick people each day, the army said on Friday, of the operation known as Hand in Hand, adding that the number could be raised as needed.

Israeli authorities have recently been recording more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases per day - the highest numbers since the beginning of the pandemic.

On Friday, the Ministry of Health reported 3,171 new coronavirus infections for the previous day. However, significantly fewer people had been tested.

According to the report, 658 people are seriously ill. Almost 60 percent of the approximately 9.4 million Israelis have been vaccinated.    (dpa)