A military intelligence task force report has found 14% of Israelis aged 60 and over have yet to receive their first dose of coronavirus vaccine. At 75%, a vast majority of confirmed cases were among young people, according to the report, released on Sunday.
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Until a majority of Israelis aged 40 to 60 are vaccinated for the virus, they will remain susceptible to becoming seriously ill with COVID-19, the task force said.
The report noted a decrease in seriously ill cases among the over 60 group, likely due to Israel's vaccination campaign. By contrast, younger Israelis comprised 40% of serious cases over the last week.
Israel's reproduction rate has gone down to 0.85, signaling a certain decline in the spread of the virus. Despite the decrease, the infection rate remains high and Israel's hospitals remain overwhelmed.
According to Health Ministry data, 1,869 of the 24,732 Israelis that tested for the virus, Saturday, were found to be carrying COVID-19, for an infection rate of 7.8%. Israel currently has 61,244 active cases of coronavirus, 1,008 of which are serious. Of those in serious condition, 284 are on ventilators. So far, 5,368 Israelis have died.
With 2,464,280 Israelis having received both doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine and 3,832,387 been given their first jab, Israel continues to lead the world in vaccinations per capita.
According to coronavirus chief Nachman Ash, it will be months before children aged six and over can receive the vaccine, a step he said was important to achieve herd immunity.
In an interview with the Kan public broadcaster, Sunday, Ash said, "We need to wait for the results of the trial and see how effective the vaccine is."
As for the opening of commerce, Ash said the government would need to allow two weeks between each step to ease the country's third lockdown. If all businesses were allowed to immediately open, he warned, "morbidity would rise in another two weeks in such a way that we believe could get out of control, and then we would need to shut things down again. Another week, week and a half of patience are needed," he said.
Noting the Health Ministry was set to divide Jerusalem and other big cities into neighborhoods to implement the government's traffic light system for rating a city's infection rates, Ash said the education system must also open gradually to prevent a spike in infections.
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