Number of Daily COVID-19 Cases in Israel doubles in a week
The number of new daily Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Israel has more than doubled in a week, from 145 cases recorded a week ago to 345 cases recorded on Monday.
COVID-19 quarantine. Credit: Pixabay.
The number of verified cases continued to increase on Sunday, and a growing 0.7% of the tests done on Sunday returned positive.
Thirty-five patients are in serious condition, as opposed to 22 a week ago, with 16 on life support.
A report issued by experts at the Hebrew University over the weekend warned that the number of daily COVID-19 cases may climb to as much as 1,000 a day if the state does not take further action against the spread of the virus. The report showed that the R coefficient is 1.5, leading to a doubling in the number of new daily cases within about a week from about 300 a day to 600.
The highly contagious Delta (Indian) COVID-19 variant entered the country with passengers who were infected abroad and did not abide by the quarantine requirements. The variant has spread to several cities and locations throughout Israel.
The government has issued a number of directives to contend with the outbreaks, with an emphasis on Israelis returning from abroad who are importing new variants into the country, after the virus almost completely disappeared in the country.
The Corona cabinet is slated to meet on Tuesday to discuss the introduction of further limitations.
Professor Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and an expert on COVID-19 in Israel, said Monday that Israel has two choices: to vaccinate the population or face a deterioration.
“These are the options at the moment, you choose: vaccinate as much as possible of the 1.2 million people who have not yet been vaccinated, return to the herd immunity before the arrival of the Delta variant, and forget about the Corona,” or “masks, the Traffic Light, testing, quarantine, enforcement, fines, restrictions, the Green Badge, the Purple Badge..,” he tweeted.
While the majority of Israel’s population over the age of 16 is vaccinated, the majority of the children are not. The vaccination pace is slow due to a lack of interest on the public’s part. About 35% of youth aged 12-19 received two vaccinations.
Over 5,645,000 Israeli citizens have received the first dose of the vaccine, some 60% of the entire population, and more than 5,177,000, about 55%, have received the second shot.
Some 85% of the adult population is vaccinated, and therefore the effect of this outbreak on the health system and its ability to contend with a mass influx of patients is projected to be workable.
