Amy Spiro is a journalist and works at The Times of Israel.
Health officials in Israel are sounding the alarm and predicting a damaging winter with a combined wave of COVID and flu cases.
Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public fitness facilities at the Ministry of Health, said Thursday that the most productive weapon imaginable remains vaccination against the two viruses.
“There are predictions that in Israel there will be a wave of COVID in October and November,” he told Army Radio. “The mix of COVID and flu can be problematic. We are preparing for it in terms of vaccines, which can be won together. “
He said this year’s flu is expected to arrive in Israel sometime in September.
An anonymous fitness official told public broadcaster Kan on Thursday that Israel is buying COVID vaccines that are specially adapted to new variants of the virus. The official also said that simultaneous screening of COVID and flu vaccines can only be reserved for other people during the 60s or at peak risk.
While Israel’s COVID vaccination campaign has slowed considerably, many other people are still getting vaccinated per day. On Tuesday, 186 Israelis received a fourth dose of the vaccine, 83 a third dose, 84 a momentary dose and 81 a first dose. By the end of July, this figure is approaching 750 doses of vaccines consistent with the day.
Overall, more than 72% of Israelis received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, 66% won two doses, 48% won 3 doses, and 9% won a fourth injection of the vaccine.
Alroy-Preis said fitness officials are following the stage around the world, especially in parts of the world that are already experiencing winter.
“One of the teams we have to prepare for winter is to look at the other part of the world, and what we see there is not reassuring,” he said, noting that a severe wave of flu and COVID cases the Australian winter with a maximum hospitalization rate.
For now, Alroy-Preis said COVID rates in Israel remain low.
“We’ve been saying for a while that COVID is here and we have to deal with it, with the ups and downs of infection, and adjust regulations to the situation,” he said.
As of Thursday morning, there were 18,335 active cases of COVID in Israel, adding 583 hospitalized and 199 among those listed as severe cases. Last week, another 18 people with COVID died, bringing the death toll since the beginning of the pandemic to 11,524. .
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