US pilgrims released from quarantine in West Bank

A group of American pilgrims from Alabama were released from quarantine at their West Bank hotel on Monday after testing negative for the coronavirus.

They left the Angel Hotel outside Bethlehem and are returning to the United States.

Chris Bell, the lead pastor, said his 13-member group arrived last week for what was supposed to be a trip of a lifetime to the Holy Land.

But after two days of touring Jerusalem and Bethlehem, they were notified that they might have been exposed to the virus.

A group of Greek tourists staying in the same hotel had tested positive.

The Angel Hotel is located in Beit Jala, a village on the outskirts of Bethlehem, which has become the centre of the West Bank's coronavirus scare.

14 of the 19 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the West Bank are hotel workers.

The coronavirus scare has generated a sense of panic throughout Bethlehem, the biblical town revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.