Ramallah, July 8 (RHC)-- The Palestinian Authority has extended a lockdown in the West Bank for another five days in hopes of slowing a new outbreak of the coronavirus.

The stay-at-home orders allow people to go out only for food or medicine and prohibit most intercity travel in Palestinian areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The lockdown was imposed last Friday and had been set to be lifted on Wednesday.  After the authority largely contained a first wave of cases, infections have skyrocketed in recent weeks, with more than 4,600 cases in the West Bank.

Neighbouring Israel is also experiencing a new outbreak, reporting record levels of new cases in recent days.