by Saud Abu Ramadan
GAZA, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The Gaza Strip, home of more than 2 million Palestinians, needs more Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) devices for coronavirus tests, said Abdelnasser Soboh, Sub-office Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Palestine.
Soboh told Xinhua in a special interview on Monday that the PCR device was allowed into the Gaza Strip on Sunday through Erez Crossing Point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, adding that having such a device "is so important, but still, there is a bad need for having more."
"It is good to have a PCR device that is placed at the European Hospital in southern Gaza Strip, and this will make the European Hospital the official hospital that deals with cases infected with COVID-19 virus," said Soboh, adding that "this will make it easy for the hospital to directly conduct the tests."
Before receiving the PCR testing device, samples were taken at the European Hospital in southern Gaza Strip and then sent to the central laboratory of the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza City.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said earlier that Israel allowed into the Gaza Strip a PCR device that is used for COVID-19 blood testing; which is a donation from Rahma International. They also said that five testing kits, purchased by the WHO, were also allowed into the coastal enclave on Monday.
"There are two PCR devices; the first had been allowed into the Gaza Strip several years ago and the second is donated by Rahma International, which is the one that was allowed into Gaza on Sunday night," said Soboh, adding that "WHO is currently working on purchasing a third PCR device."
Ashraf al-Qedra, the Health Ministry Spokesman in Gaza, told Xinhua on Sunday that the ministry received a PCR for coronavirus tests, adding that "it's good to have a PCR amid the severe shortage of preventive medical supplies that Gaza suffers from."
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, 259 cases infected with the virus were recorded in the West Bank and 13 in the Gaza Strip, according to the director of Palestinian Health Ministry's Primary Healthcare department Kamal Shakhra.
Although the cases infected with the virus in the Gaza Strip, which is a high densely populated area, are slim compared with the West Bank and Israel, health officials in Gaza warned of a disaster in case the virus spread in the enclave amid a severe lack of medical supplies.
On Monday, Egypt reopened Rafah Crossing Point on the borders with the Gaza Strip for four days until Thursday to enable hundreds of Palestinians, stranded in Egypt, to return home, according to officials in Gaza Ministry of Interior, who said around 300 people, will cross in Gaza from Monday to Thursday.
Eyad al-Bozzom, Spokesman of the Interior Ministry, told reporters that all those who return to Gaza through Rafah Crossing Point will be sent to obligatory quarantine for three weeks, adding that all of them will be tested while they are in quarantine.
Hamas movement had finished earlier this week the construction of 1,000 quarantine units in northern and southern Gaza Strip and handed them to the health ministry in Gaza to receive those who return from Egypt to Gaza.
