It is possible that Israel will be unable to reach a level of herd immunity against coronavirus, even if 100% of the population eligible to be vaccinated against the virus is vaccinated, head of public health services in the Health Ministry Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis told the Knesset Sunday afternoon.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Speaking to the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice committee, which convened to discuss COVID regulations, Alroy-Preis said, "We're in a situation in which the contagion rate is 1 and we're releasing restrictions. There's no doubt that the public was willing to be vaccinated during the third lockdown, and what changed the game was the British mutation which is apparently more contagious and causes more serious cases."
"If we thought that after the first round of vaccine shots, everything would be different, that's not the case. We are seeing mutations around the world that are re-infection people," Alroy-Preis warned.
"At the moment we have 2.5 million children who can't be vaccinated. It looks like we won't achieve herd immunity, even if the entire population who can be vaccinated does so. The Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective, which means that 5% won't have full protection, and for older people, that [efficacy] is even 90%," she said.
As of Sunday morning, Israel's infection rate stood at 9.4%, as the country began to cautiously exit its third national lockdown.
According to the Health Ministry, 2,625 of the 28,852 people who tested for the coronavirus, Saturday, were found to have contacted COVID-19. There are currently 70,371 active cases of the virus, 1,144 of which are serious. Of those in serious condition, 312 are on ventilators.
So far, 687,492 people have been infected with the virus, 5,096 of whom have died. Twenty-seven of the deceased passed away on Saturday.
The Military Intelligence task force on the coronavirus found that despite the decrease in the number of seriously ill patients, the number of daily confirmed cases remains high and hospitals continue to be overwhelmed. Under the lockdown, Israel's reproduction rate surpassed one; It now stands at a high 0.99.
According to the task force, this statistic, along with the easing of some of the lockdown restrictions Sunday morning and the prominence of the UK variant of the virus is expected to lead to a sharp increase in morbidity in the coming weeks.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Israel leads Western countries like the US, UK, France, and Austria in the number of new infections per 1 million people, according to the report
There has, however, been a decrease in verified cases as well as in severe morbidity among patients aged 60 and over, likely due to the influence of the vaccination campaign. Over 15% of the age group, however, remains at risk as it has yet to receive the first dose of the vaccine and has not recovered from the virus.
More than 3,426,800 Israelis, over one-third of the country's population, have received the first dose of the vaccine, and 2,016,350, 21.87% of the population, has received the second dose.
Jerusalem's Herzog Medical Center, which specializes in medical care for the elderly, is currently treating 100 coronavirus patients, 42 of which are in serious condition.
"We have a critical week ahead of us," the center's director, Dr. Jacob Haviv, said. "The wards are still full with seriously ill patients, and on the other hand, lockdown restrictions have been eased. I call on everyone to go and get vaccinated. The vaccine has proven itself. There are almost no outbreaks in nursing homes. This is a significant success for the vaccine."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
