A 29-year-old young mother from southern Israel lost her fetus after she fell ill with coronavirus.
This is the first recorded case of a fetus confirmed to have coronavirus and die in utero as a result of the virus.
The young woman, who was 25 weeks pregnant, arrived at her family doctor after she did not feel fetal movements. She was immediately transferred to Ashdod's Assuta Hospital, where she delivered the baby - stillborn.
The pregnancy was the mother's third, and all of the prenatal scans had shown a healthy fetus. The woman had suffered a fever several days before the incident occurred.
The hospital, which tested the mother as part of its protocol, found her to be positive for coronavirus and reported the stillbirth to the Health Ministry. According to the hospital, the fetus contracted coronavirus from its mother, and died as a result.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud) told Kan Reshet Bet on Tuesday morning that "there is an improvement in the number of coronavirus infections. Still, they are far from simple. There is a clear drop in the number of patients in serious condition and the number of confirmed cases, and there is a continuous increase in the number of people getting vaccinated - but we must be cautious."
He added: "Today, we will have more than four million vaccinated people in Israel, among them 2,612,000 who have received the second dose as well. Yesterday, 156,000 people were vaccinated."
Regarding the decision to lift certain restrictions, Edelstein said, "We are still far from returning to routine, but I am happy that yesterday the Cabinet approved the reopening of several industries, with the appropriate cautions. There is still a long way to go."
"A lot depends on people's personal responsibility," he added. "We need to understand that we can't party yet."