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A rare case of infection within the coronavirus ward. A doctor and two nurses who work in one of the Ichilov Medical Center's coronavirus became infected with the virus. The investigation of the incident revealed that the two apparently contracted the virus from a patient's respirator during the operation of eight devices at the same time.

The Israel Hayom newspaper revealed that following the incident, Ichilov adopted a new procedure, according to which each ward will have a maximum of six respirators using Vapotherm respirators.

In addition, the devices will use air suction technology to prevent the release of aerosol particles containing the virus.

Infection of hospital staff during their work in the coronavirus wards is considered rare. The staff enter these departments entered with maximum protection and under strict procedures.

Although at any given moment there are hundreds and even thousands of employees in the health system who have been infected or are in isolation, from investigations conducted at the end of the first wave, only a few reports of employees within the infected departments have emerged.

Most of the infections of employees were caused by exposure to infected family members at social events or to a an undiagnosed patient outside of a coronavirus ward.

Dr. Yael Paran, an expert in infectious diseases and internal medicine, director of the epidemiology unit at Ichilov Hospital, explained, "We have almost no infections within the corona wards, this is an uncommon event. These are departments with an air intake system and negative pressure, departments that are entered with 'hasmat suits' in a very controlled manner and with observation of the protective measures."

"Therefore, investigate in order to understand what happened this time. When we investigated, we found that these are employees who are very strict about procedures outside of work and that none of their family members became infected. This is a sequence of cases that happened last week and it lit a red light. Infection in a coronavirus ward is something we are very afraid of," Paran said.