The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Sunday declared 17 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 234.
The new cases were from the city of Bethlehem and the city of Beitunia in the Ramallah district, PA spokesman Ibrahim Milhem said, according to the Xinhua news agency.
He noted that the six cases in Beitunia include a 35-year-old woman and her five children ranging in age between 3 and 18 years. They contracted the novel coronavirus through their father, who is a worker in Israel.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Beitunia alone has reached 13, according to Xinhua. As a result, the Governor of the Ramallah district, Laila Ghannam, has declared a total lockdown on the city.
In total, 23 Palestinian Arabs have recovered from the virus, including six in the Gaza Strip.
On Saturday, PA cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh said that it would be possible to escape the coronavirus crisis if all of Palestinian Arab society mobilizes for this purpose.
Shtayyeh stressed the importance of checking Palestinian Arab workers returning from Israel and preventing the passage to and from the “settlements” to stop the spread of the virus.
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday extended the state of emergency for another 30 days due to the spread of the coronavirus.
He initially announced a month-long state of emergency after the first seven cases of coronavirus were identified in Bethlehem. Since then, cases were identified in other PA-controlled cities as well.