Claim: Gaza runs out of coronavirus tests, Palestinian health officials say.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Coronavirus
text: 2013, a case of contamination from human to human in France was confirmed by the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. In addition, cases of person-to-person transmission have been reported by the Ministry of Health in Tunisia. Two confirmed cases seem to have caught the disease from their late father, who became ill after a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. By Oct. 30 2013, there were 124 cases and 52 deaths in Saudi Arabia. After the Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre sequenced the virus, the virus was given a new name, Human Corona Virus-Erasmus Medical Centre (HCoV-EMC). The final

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: of unknown origin. Of the six, two died. All the cases were reported to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). After the September identification of a novel CoV strain, a retroactive analysis of the hospital workers was performed. Epidemiologists discovered the Jordan cases. Using stored laboratory samples for all six, it was found that samples from the two patients who had died tested positive for nCoV. On 24 April 2014, a 25-year-old male was found positive for the coronavirus. He had history of exposure to camels and had consumed camel milk. The Ministry of Health and Medical

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: government, in November 2013, reported a woman in Spain, who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Islamic pilgrimage, contracted the disease. On 14 April 2014, one Filipino paramedic died in the United Arab Emirates, with six other reported to be infected with the virus. On 17 April, the UAE Ministry of Health reported another fatality and four additional cases, including the Filipino medical worker who travelled to the Philippines on 16 April. On 21 April 2014, the Health Ministry of UAE reported an additional 9 cases. In April 2012, six hospital workers were diagnosed with acute respiratory failure

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: a nurse who came in contact with the deceased patient are suspected to have contracted the disease. The victim's son-in-law is also reported to have been infected. According to Dr. Gooya, the infection of 1 out of the 3 suspected patients is confirmed and more tests are under way to determine the situation of the other two patients. On 7 May 2013, a case was confirmed in Nord departement of France in a man who had previously traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On 12 May 2013, in a case of human to human transmission, a man previously hospitalized in

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome
text: pneumonia and acute renal failure. After routine diagnostics failed to identify the causative agent, Zaki contacted Ron Fouchier, a leading virologist at the Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for advice. Fouchier sequenced the virus from a sample sent by Zaki. Fouchier used a broad-spectrum "pan-coronavirus" real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method to test for distinguishing features of a number of known coronaviruses (such as OC43, 229R, NL63, and SARS-CoV), as well as for RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp), a gene conserved in all coronaviruses known to infect humans. While the screens for known coronaviruses were all negative, the

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: said virus. The Evangelista Medical Hospital in San Pedro, Laguna, the facility where the patient was first admitted, was temporarily closed by DOH for fourteen days. On 17 February 2015, all those who had exposure or had contact with the said nurse were tested negative of the said virus. On 6 March 2015, The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed three Filipino female healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia who were infected with MERS-CoV. On 6 July 2015, DOH confirmed the second detected case of MERS-CoV in the country. The patient who had contracted the virus was from the Middle East and

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: and from that family at least one additional person presented similar symptoms but tested negative for the novel coronavirus. On 21 February 2013, WHO stated that there had been 13 laboratory-confirmed cases, 6 cases (4 fatal) from Saudi Arabia, 2 cases (both fatal) from Jordan, 2 cases from Qatar, and 3 from the UK. In March 2013, the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health reported the death of a 39-year-old man, the 15th case and 9th death reported to WHO. On 2 May 2013, the Saudi Ministry of Health announced five people died and two other people were in critical condition

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome
text: based on the virus's RNA obtained from the Qatari case. On 25 September 2012, the WHO announced that it was "engaged in further characterizing the novel coronavirus" and that it had "immediately alerted all its Member States about the virus and has been leading the coordination and providing guidance to health authorities and technical health agencies." The Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam "tested, sequenced and identified" a sample provided to EMC virologist Ron Fouchier by Ali Mohamed Zaki in November 2012. On 8 November 2012 in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Zaki and

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
text: camel strains are intermixed suggesting multiple transmission events. The first confirmed case was reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Egyptian virologist Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki isolated and identified a previously unknown coronavirus from the man's lungs. Dr. Zaki then posted his findings on 24 September 2012 on ProMED-mail. The isolated cells showed cytopathic effects (CPE), in the form of rounding and syncytia formation. A second case was found in September 2012, a 49-year-old male living in Qatar presented with similar flu symptoms, and a sequence of the virus was nearly identical to that of the first case. In November 2012,

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
text: and were therefore delaying the development of diagnostic tests. Erasmus MC responded that the patent application did not restrict public health research into MERS coronavirus, and that the virus and diagnostic tests were shipped—free of charge—to all that requested such reagents. There are a number of mapping efforts focused on tracking MERS coronavirus. On 2 May 2014, the Corona Map was launched to track the MERS coronavirus in realtime on the world map. The data is officially reported by WHO or the Ministry of Health of the respective country. HealthMap also tracks case reports with inclusion of news and social

title: Healthcare in the Palestinian territories
text: maintain that the quality of health care professionals in Gaza has been hampered as they are often not permitted to travel abroad to conventions and training sessions where they can advance their skills and knowledge. Besides the problems posed by the conflict with Israel, a major challenge to health care in the PNA territories is the fact that the PNA is currently not at liberty to physically implement policy in Gaza. Currently, the extent of its involvement in Gaza health care is limited to the financial contributions it makes there. Though the challenges above stem largely from the geo-political reality

title: Healthcare in the Palestinian territories
text: the West Bank and in Gaza provided that they are registered as refugees. As of 2012, the UNRWA provides health services to 727,471 people in the West Bank through some 42 primary health centers and to 1,167,572 Gazans through 21 Primary Health centers. The UNRWA finances about 24% of all health care spending in Palestine. Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) bankrolled by private benefactors encompass a sizable portion of the health care economy in the PNA. A World Bank survey found that 11.7% of Palestinians used NGOs most frequently for their health needs. 13.3% of households in the West Bank relied

title: Healthcare in the Palestinian territories
text: in Gaza by assisting with salaries of some health officials and sending medical supplies. According to the World Bank, the two documents comprising the legal framework of PNA health care are the 2003 Palestinian Constitution and the 2004 Public Health Law. In its articles concerning health care, the constitution requires that the PNA regulate health insurance and guarantees health care to the following classes of people: the injured, prisoners of war, families of dead terrorists, and the disabled. Additionally, the 2004 Public Health Law spans 13 chapters and 85 provisions, and covers issues such as women and children’s health, combating

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: MERS had infected at least 60 people with cases reported in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Tunisia, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK), France and Italy, with a death toll of 38. Saudi officials expressed great concern that millions of Muslims from around the world would potentially be exposed to the virus during the autumn Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. In May 2014, the WHO said it was monitoring the situation as global cases of MERS appeared to be on the rise, but said the situation did not yet constitute a health emergency. On 3 June 2014,

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: man from the Orlando area, has been reported, and a third Illinois man is as yet asymptomatic but has tested positive for a past infection with the healthcare worker from Indiana. The latter case is the first human-to-human transmission in the United States. On 28 May 2014, the CDC announced that the third person who was found positive for the virus was not infected. The announcement came after a further laboratory analysis by CDC indicating that the person was never infected with the virus. 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak Since 2012, an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome

title: Effects of the Gaza War (2008–09)
text: Health Organization reported that at least 1,000 medical machines were out of order, with shortage of equipment and spare parts. Sources from the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that the situation on 2 January, while extremely precarious, has stabilized after the arrival of medical supplies. From 4 January, all of Gaza City hospitals were without main electricity, depending on back-up generators that were close to collapse. From 4 to 5 January, UNRWA was forced to shut down 19 health centers due to hostilities in the area, and Ministry of Health closed down generators at ambulance stations, vaccine stores, labs and

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: Education of Iran reported that two women had been diagnosed with MERS and on 29 May 2014 one of the women died of the disease in the city of Kerman. According to Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Gooya, Chief of the Center for Management of Contagious Diseases of Iran, the patient had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and her immune system, therefore, wasn't strong enough to fend off the disease. The second patient is said to be in a good condition. Four days later, on 4 June 2014, the Ministry of Health reported that 3 more people including a doctor and

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: in Saudi Arabia to 1,115 cases and 480 fatalities as of 18 August 2015. Since May, most of the cases have occurred at the King Abdulaziz Medical City, a large national guard hospital. Due to fears of the MERS virus, attendance in the hajj in 2013 was lower than the previous year. The Saudi government asked "elderly and chronically ill Muslims to avoid the hajj this year" and restricted the number of people allowed "to perform the pilgrimage". Saudi Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabia said "that authorities had so far detected no cases among the pilgrims" of MERS. However, the Spanish

title: Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation
text: resources are concentrated on modernizing national childhood vaccination schedules, preventing mother-to-child transmission of diseases, and deworming school-aged children. Over 20 million individuals have benefited from RVF's health programs. RVF successfully introduced the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in the West Bank and Gaza, so that all newborns in both territories receive this life-saving vaccine. Local health authorities assumed full responsibility of the vaccination program in 2013, transitioning to complete local sustainability of the program. RVF launched a rotavirus vaccination program in the West Bank and Gaza in 2015. RVF’s Hepatitis B vaccination program of adolescents and at-risk health care workers in the

title: Effects of the Gaza War (2008–09)
text: suffered severe damage. Palestinian Ministry of Health reports 16 health staff were killed, and 22 injured while on duty. The policy of the Government of Israel is to condition the access of Palestinians who live in the Palestinian territories to healthcare in Israel upon financial coverage from the Palestinian Authority. In January 2009, following the war, the Palestinian Authority cancelled financial coverage for all medical care for Palestinians in Israeli hospitals, including coverage for chronically ill Palestinian patients, and those in need of complex care that is not available in other tertiary medical centers in the region. This decision was