The number of coronavirus patients listed in serious condition according to Israel’s Health Ministry dropped dramatically Thursday evening, hours after reports found discrepancies between the Health Ministry’s numbers and the numbers reported by hospitals.
On Thursday morning, the Health Ministry reported that there were 46 COVID patients in serious condition, rising from 41 on Wednesday – a rise which marked the eighth straight day of increases in the number, according to the Health Ministry.
But Thursday night, the Health Ministry’s updated numbers showed a dramatic drop in the number of seriously ill patients, with the number falling from 46 in the morning to just 37, a 20% plunge.
The sudden change hours after reports found that there were discrepancies between the number of seriously ill patients in each hospital according to the Health Ministry’s figures, compared to the numbers claimed by the hospitals themselves.
In Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, for instance, according to government statistics there is one person in serious condition. However, an inquiry posed to hospital officials revealed that although there is one patient hospitalized with coronavirus there, he is not in serious condition. In Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, according to the government, there is one patient in serious condition; according to the hospital itself, there are none. In Sheba hospital in Tel Hashomer, the government claims there are three patients in serious condition; the hospital itself says there is just one.
Responding to the allegations of discrepancies in the data, the Health Ministry noted that it receives data from the country’s hospitals via private companies, and that it will be investigating alleged discrepancies.
A report by Channel 12 claimed that at least some of the patients counted by the Health Ministry as seriously ill COVID patients had in fact already recovered from the virus and had been transferred out of COVID wards to other hospital wards for treatment of other conditions – yet were still listed by the Health Ministry as seriously ill coronavirus patients.