Hospital Says COVID-Related Death was Delta Not Omicron

On Wednesday, a hospital in Israel clarified that a man who had died this week from the coronavirus was suffering from the Delta variant and not the Omicron variant, as claimed previously. Located in Beersheba, the Soroka Medical Center said that the man who had died on Monday was discovered to have the Delta variant of COVID-19, which was confirmed through final laboratory tests. On Tuesday, the hospital had initially said that he had been suffering from the Omicron variant and his death had been reported as the first fatality in Israel due to the new variant. 

According to the hospital, the man was in his 60s and had been suffering from a number of other severe preexisting medical conditions. He had died after staying in the hospital for two weeks. He had been hospitalized due to some other conditions and had then tested positive for COVID. On Tuesday evening, the Health Ministry announced that there were 170 new cases of the Omicron variant in Israel, which brought the total cases of the variant in the country to 341. According to the ministry, there were some 807 cases that were suspected of being Omicron as well, but were awaiting confirmation. 

Overall, there has been an increase in the coronavirus cases in Israel in recent days, even though they did decline a bit on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the statistics released by the Health Ministry showed that only 903 new cases had been diagnosed on Tuesday, as opposed to 1,323 cases on Monday, which was a two-month record, whereas Sunday’s cases had been 1,020. There was also a drop in the positivity rate, as it came down to 1.1% on Tuesday, even though it had been 1.28% on Monday. However, hospitalizations and serious cases in Israel have remained low in the past couple of weeks. 

As far as serious cases of COVID-19 are concerned, they have remained below the 100 mark in the last two weeks. On Wednesday morning, the total number of active cases in the country were 8,637 and 123 of these people were hospitalized. Those in serious condition were 80, while 38 patients were on ventilators. The Health Ministry disclosed that four people have died due to the coronavirus in the last week. With the ultra-contagious Omicron variant spreading quickly in Israel, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has been encouraging parents to get kids between 5 and 11 vaccinated.

Only 12.4% of the children belonging to this age group have gotten the first shot. On Tuesday, a first dose was administered to 8,885 Israelis, which is the highest rate seen in three weeks. Almost 70% of the people in Israel have received the first dose and three doses have been administered to 45%. On Tuesday night, health officials recommended that Israel begin administering the fourth dose of the vaccine to those over 60, medical personnel and at-risk groups. Bennett said on Tuesday that avoiding a fifth wave of the pandemic was no longer possible. Speaking to the coronavirus cabinet, he said that they could only provide citizens with tools for protecting themselves.