By: Aryeh Savir
There is a high chance that the Ministry of Health will recommend to the government to extend the countrywide Coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown beyond the initial two weeks, Israel’s Corona Czar Professor Nachman Ash stated Sunday, as the infection rate in the country remained high.
“In recent days we have seen a great burden on the health system. There are about 1,200 critically ill patients, 85% occupancy in the various corona wards, hospitals are lessening elective procedures. The geriatric system is in very high occupancy. There is difficulty in evacuating verified patients from nursing homes. We are working to release patients who have recovered more effectively. The load is expected to continue for several more days until we see a decline in morbidity, “Ash said.
The Ministry of Health updated Sunday morning that it documented 8,398 new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases over the past day.
Of the 101,722 tests done over the weekend, a very high 8.5% returned positive.
A record of 1,184 patients hospitalized with Corona are in serious condition, 274 of them are on life support.
“We cautiously hope that the trend from the weekend, of the slowdown, will continue. The R is also going down, we have not yet gone bellow from 1, but the direction is encouraging,” he noted.
Israel is now in a situation where a week has passed since the first Israelis received the second Pfizer-developed COVID-19 vaccine.
Over 2,046,730 Israelis have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, some 23% of the population.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at the beginning of the Cabinet meeting on Sunday that the country will increase its vaccination rate to about 200,000 a day and “thus we will continue during the week in order to allow for the gradual opening, with the green passport, of parts of the economy, and of life, until we open them completely.”
However, the government needs to “assess the morbidity situation and determine whether an additional restricted period is needed, and will do so on Tuesday or Wednesday,” he said.
3,959 Israelis have died of the virus.
(World Israel News)
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