The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday announced a five-day lockdown across the occupied West Bank after a surge in confirmed coronavirus infections.

"Starting from Friday morning, all governorates of the West Bank, the towns and the villages, will be closed for a period of five days," government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said, adding that pharmacies, bakeries and supermarkets were exempted.

The Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem opened for worshipers late May after three months of lockdown.