• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

COVID-19 Hits Israeli Government as Serious Cases Continue Surge

Jan 14, 2022

On Friday, two officials of the Israeli government tested positive for the coronavirus, along with 40,430 citizens who also tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. These numbers indicate a decrease of 7,852 cases from Wednesday, but the number of serious cases continued to go up, as it had risen on Thursday by a total of 19. Eyal Hulta, the head of the National Security Council and the National Security Adviser, along with Zeev Elkin, the Housing Minister, had tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday morning. The spokesperson’s office of the Knesset also announced that one of their employees had also tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Prime Minister’s Office disclosed that Eyal Hulta had come into contact with the premier himself as well as his staff. However, antigen tests had been conducted on all of them and they had received negative results. Elkin took to Twitter to share that he had felt sick on Friday and had gone home. He decided to do an antigen test and got a positive test result. He went on to request that anyone who had come into contact with him in recent days should also take a test in accordance with the rules outlined by the Health Ministry. 

Elkin wrote that he would continue to oversee the activities associated with the Ministry of Construction and Housing next week from quarantine at home with God’s help and through Zoom. According to the numbers on Friday morning, the total number of patients in serious condition because of the coronavirus stood at 306 in Israel. 95 of these patients were considered to be in critical condition of which 78 had been put on ventilators. This is a slight increase from the day before, when the number had stood at 69. As for patients who were using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines, this number remained stable at 12 and there were no additional deaths.

An 11-year-old girl is also one of the serious patients, who has been hospitalized at the Kaplan Medical Center. The Acting Director of the hospital’s Children Division, Alex Guri said that the patient was already suffering from pre-existing conditions and also had breathing difficulties. He said that she had also received a single dose of the vaccine. He said that a total of 85,000 children had tested positive for COVID-19, but the number of children in serious condition had remained low in Israel, as opposed to the US and the UK, where an increasing number of children have been hospitalized due to the Omicron variant. 

The doctor said that they were ready with a Coronavirus Department for Children at this stage and understood that a number of children would be tested during the current wave. He added that even if the vaccine doesn’t prevent sickness completely, it can prevent serious illness. The Health Ministry data on Friday morning indicated that 513,865 people had gotten their fourth dose of the vaccine. Former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is also one of the people who have gotten the second booster shot. 

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