The news portal ynet reported that the number of infections with the new coronavirus diagnosed in Israel in one day is rising sharply again, reaching the level of March.
On Monday, the outbreak of the (Indian) delta virus variant, which is 40 percent more contagious than before, has spread further, and five hundred and one new virus carriers have already been identified through 72,896 tests performed. This represents a positive rate of 0.7 percent, similarly the last high data measured in the country at the end of March, MTI reported.
About half of the new infected are schoolchildren, and about fifty thousand Israelis are already in home quarantine due to the resurgence of the epidemic. There has also been an increase in the number of hospital admissions, which has already reached seventy-three but is still only thirty-three serious cases. Sixteen people are on a ventilator.
There is currently one severely infected red and six moderately infected orange colonies in the country. Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva, among others, are included in this category. Sixteen slightly infected yellow settlements were identified and 257 sites remained green, which means that they are considered to be little or no infected in Israel.
Significant efforts are being made to continue the vaccination campaign, especially in the 12-15-year-old group, where 36.3 percent of people aged 10-20 years received the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine once and 24.3 percent twice.
According to research conducted by the Ministry of Health, the effectiveness of Pfizer’s vaccines in preventing infections and symptoms has decreased by nearly thirty percent, but the effectiveness of 93 percent has been measured in Israel against hospitalization and serious illness. As a result, the number of cases requiring hospital care is still rising very slowly compared to previous waves.