• Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Serious COVID-19 Cases Fall Below 300 for the First Time in 10 Weeks

Oct 22, 2021
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According to the latest statistics provided by the Health Ministry, Sunday was the first time since the beginning of August that the number of serious COVID-19 cases had fallen below the 300 mark in Israel. A month ago, the total number of serious cases had been around 704, but as of Sunday evening, the number of serious coronavirus cases in Israel was 284. The total number of active cases in the country on Sunday was around 11,977 and these included 414 patients who were hospitalized due to COVID-19. As mentioned earlier, 284 people were in serious condition and 148 of these were put on ventilators. 

On Saturday, the total number of positive test cases had been 330, which marks a positivity rate of about 0.97%. Friday was the first time that the positivity rate had fallen below 1% since July, even though new diagnosed cases do tend to be lower on the weekend because less people get themselves tested. Recent weeks have also seen a drop in daily deaths because of COVID-19. Two people lost their lives to the disease on Saturday, four on Friday and six people passed away on both Thursday and Wednesday. 

However, it is important to note that while new cases may have dropped, so has the rate of COVID-19 vaccinations in the country. This is despite the fact that there are still more than 1 million Israelis who are eligible for the third shot of the vaccine. A booster dose was administered to about 12,000 people on Thursday, whereas on the same day last week, 16,000 had gotten the shot. Two weeks ago, the number of people who had gotten the booster shot was 34,000. As per the numbers on Sunday evening, around 67% people in Israel have received one dose of the vaccine and all three doses have been given to 42% of the eligible population.

Before the meeting of the cabinet on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that the success Israel had achieved in defeating the fourth wave of the coronavirus could be considered a lesson for other nations. Bennett said that they were currently exiting the fourth wave as the number of severe cases have dropped below the 300 mark. However, he added that with winter coming, Europe as well as other countries were experiencing an increase in both mortality and morbidity. He added that they possessed knowledge that could be helpful to these countries and were ready to share it with the world.

He further announced that NIS 10 billion i.e. $3.1 billion would be earmarked by the government for dealing with potential future waves of the coronavirus that could occur in a month, six months, or may not happen at all. Meanwhile, health experts have determined that the new Delta mutation known as AY4.2 seems to be 15% more infections. Nonetheless, it is not deadlier than the original variant and neither is it evading the vaccine, which is certainly good news, as the Delta had proven to be a lot more troublesome than the original coronavirus. 

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