Jerusalem, Aug 20 (IANS): Israel's Ministry of Health reported 18 new Covid-19 death cases on Wednesday, the highest daily death toll since the country's pandemic outbreak in late February.

The previous daily death case record in Israel, 17, was recorded on August 12.

The ministry also added to the total number of death cases 53 deaths of nursing home residents that have occurred since early July, but were not registered on time by mistake, Xinhua reported.

Israel's Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on Wednesday that he sees this mistake very seriously and instructed to carry out a thorough inspection.

As a result, the total number of death cases reached 779, while the number of patients in serious condition dropped from 404 to 398, out of 795 patients currently hospitalised.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Israel reached 97,969, with 1,560 new cases.

The number of recoveries rose to 73,092, with 1,102 new recoveries, while the number of active cases rose to 24,098.