Asyas Argo, a 100-year-old resident of Rehovot, passed away on Tuesday after contracting the coronavirus, making her the oldest COVID-19 victim in Israel.
Argo, who had underlying health issues, was diagnosed with the coronavirus on the first night of Passover, and was hospitalized at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot.
She made Aliyah at the age of 64 during the 1984 covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel known as Operation Moses.
“All we can say now is thank you to the medical staff who took care of my mother,” said Argo’s daughter, Osnat Zagai.
“My mother was a saint who lived a long life, and got to see her family grow," she said.
“She raised us throughout all the hardships, she was the love of my life and now she has been taken from me, the best mother in the world,” said Zagai, who had been granted entry to the coronavirus ward in order to say her goodbyes.
“I saw my mother, stroked her hair and said goodbye one last time,” she said.
Kaplan Hospital said that the staff on the coronavirus war "treated the deceased’s daughter with the utmost sensitivity and allowed her to say goodbye while wearing full protective gear supplied by the staff."
Adlib Maar’ee, the chief orderly at the hospital’s coronavirus ward said: “With the aid of a social worker, we were able to let the patient’s daughter into the ward in full protective gear.
“We accompanied her during this terrible time, it is the least we can do for family members of the ward’s patient. While we may be here for the patients, it is no less important to provide aid to their families.”
As of Tuesday morning, Israel had 13,883 confirmed coronavirus cases and 181 patients had succumbed to the disease.