The number of severely ill coronavirus patients in Israel reached 140 on Friday, marking a nearly 70 percent increase from last week, with fitness experts warning that the current situation is “unstable. “
While Israel has noticed an increase in the number of infections for a few weeks, an increase in the number of critically ill patients marks genuine fear as the country faces the spread of the new BA. 5 variant, with experts warning that hospitals would possibly want to reopen COVID services. The number 85 seriously ill patients on Friday of last week.
Some 7,313 Israelis tested positive for the virus on Friday, the fitness ministry said. The aftershock number (R) stood at 1. 31 on Friday. The figure measures the number of other people who are coronavirus carriers on average, and any number greater than 1 means the spread of COVID-19 is increasing. It began to surpass 1 in mid-May, after remaining below that threshold for about two months.
The death toll stands at 10,882, six dead in the last week.
“Knowledge implies that the disease is active in the community,” Professor Cyrille Cohen, an expert on immune formulas at Bar Ilan University, told the Ynet news site.
“The genuine indication is the number of patients in serious condition because we know that a lot of the morbidity goes undetected because other people aren’t going to get tested, and that also wants to be taken into account,” he said.
“What determines the policy is not necessarily the number of patients shown, but the condition of critical patients. We want to see if they are experiencing the disease more severely, and if we will want to prepare to reopen COVID this summer. “Added.
Despite the warning, Cohen said it was too early to know the severity of the mutated variant of Omicron, known as BA. 5, and whether or not it will expand into a new wave.
“We don’t know precisely what this wave will look like and whether we can call it a wave,” he said. “We are following the events in Portugal because the BA. 5 variant is dominant there and because its population is from Israel in length with many other people vaccinated, even more than in Israel. “
Cohen noted that morbidity and mortality rates increased in Portugal at the same time that the BA5 variant began to spread.
“We want to realize that this is also going to get here,” he said, urging lawmakers to act. “This is an unpredictable and volatile scenario related to COVID. It will take months or even years before there is a significant decline and we arrive in a more predictable scenario. But you also have to be careful with the estimates,” he added.
Cohen said the effort will focus on “actively fostering herd immunity among the vulnerable and elderly population” through “calling other people who haven’t won the vaccine and encouraging them to get it. “
He also begged dressed in a mask at crowded stalls such as on buses and in shopping malls.
On Wednesday, coronavirus czar Professor Salman Zarka said the new BA. 5 variant is gaining ground and is more resistant to vaccines than previous strains.
“The BA. 5 strain lately accounts for about 50 percent of patients,” he said. “The strain has caused mild illness in young people, but we can see an increase in hospitalizations. “
He said BA. 5 would replace Omicron as the dominant variant and continue to gain traction.
Israel eliminated its requirement for an indoor mask in April, as the number of infections dropped dramatically. Outdoor masks are no longer mandatory since April last year.
Salman Zarka also said that it is possible that Israelis will soon be officially identified as COVID-19 patients based only on a home test, under certain conditions, while at the same time, the Ministry of Health is expanding testing facilities.
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