COVID-19 testing in Gaza halted by Israeli airstrike

An Israeli airstrike on Monday damaged the only laboratory in Gaza capable of processing COVID-19 tests, effectively halting coronavirus testing in the region.

The New York Times reports that the airstrike targeted a different building in Gaza City, across the street from the lab. Debris and shrapnel from the strike flew across the street and damaged the lab.

The offices of the Hamas-run Health Ministry were also damaged by the blast, according to the ministry’s Director of Preventive Medicine Majdi Dhair. Dhair told the Times that one ministry employee had been severely injured and hospitalized after a piece of shrapnel struck him in the head.

“This attack was barbaric,” Dhair said. “There’s no way to justify it.”

Dhair told the outlet that he believes the equipment inside the lab to still be functional, but said it would take at least a day to clean and prepare the lab for any COVID-19 testing. Until the lab is prepared, medical teams will stop administering coronavirus tests, Dhair said.

Tests for HIV, hepatitis C and other conditions will also not be available while the lab is unable to operate. Only around 2 percent of Gaza’s population is fully vaccinated, the Times reports, a stark contrast to Israel where 56 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

Matthias Schmale, the United Nations director of operations for Gaza, noted that schools where unvaccinated Palestinian civilians have gathered could potentially become “mass spreaders” of the virus, the Times reported.