By: INN Staff
A 75-year-old man who died Monday of coronavirus became Israel’s first recorded death from the virus’ Omicron strain, Kan News reported.
The man, who suffered from pre-existing conditions, died in Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center, Kan added.
The man had received two COVID-19 vaccines, but more than six months had passed since the second dose.
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that 73% of new COVID-19 diagnoses are of the Omicron variant.
Last week, Omicron claimed its first patient in Britain.
The first cases of Omicron were first detected in Britain on November 27th, but as of last week, the new variant already accounted for around 40% of reported in infections in London.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s on Tuesday evening spoke at the start of the meeting of the ministerial committee on fighting COVID-19 (the Coronavirus Cabinet), admitting that Israel will not be able to prevent a wave of infections, but will try to manage it instead.
“Today we are submitting to the Cabinet a series of decisions that will be presented immediately,” Bennett said. “Our goal is enable the State of Israel to get through the Omicron wave while maintaining the functioning of the economy as much as possible.”
“The Omicron in Israel is advancing exactly according to our expectations and assessments. Around three-and-a-half weeks ago, we made here, in this forum, the brave and farsighted decision to close Israel to the entry of foreign nationals from the entire world. This bought us an advantage of almost a month as compared to our friends in Europe and the US. But now, we are witnessing the doubling of the number of verified cases and we are entering an exponential pace.
“We expect to see a similar trend of doubling every two or three days in the near future, perhaps less. The public needs to be aware that a dramatic increase in morbidity is expected. This is not an exaggeration. It is expected and I estimate that it will arrive very quickly.
“We cannot prevent this wave; there is no such possibility. However, we can certainly give the citizens of Israel the tools with which they may protect themselves against severe morbidity, given that some of them will be infected.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) participated in a virtual meeting of Foreign Ministers about the Omicron variant.
Participating in the meeting with him were US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the Foreign Ministers of Japan, India, Mexico, Australia, Germany, and additional countries.
The virtual meeting was organized by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, together with seventeen foreign ministers from around the world. The forum dealt with the global struggle with, the challenges of, and solutions to the outbreak of the Omicron variant.
(INN)
