As many as 524 Palestinians abroad have caught the novel coronavirus COVID-19 while 24 others have been pronounced dead, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates has said.

In a Thursday statement, the Foreign Ministry said that in all countries other than the United States, 157 Palestinian expatriates have tested positive for the disease after a new case was reported in Austria and another in Geneva. The number of deaths in those countries stood at eight.

The ministry hailed Palestinian doctors abroad who have been participating in life-threatening efforts aimed at combating the virus, saying around 1,000 Palestinian doctors in Europe and hundreds of others in the US, Venezuela and Cuba, among other states, are putting their lives at risk to save others’ lives.

In the United States, the number so far has reached 367, after 15 new cases were reported, and the number of deaths among the American Palestinian community has reached 16, after a new death of a Palestinian woman was reported on Thursday in New Jersey.