A new report by a military intelligence task force on the coronavirus has found corona infections in Israel are widespread. The reproduction rate, which has been on the rise in recent weeks following the reopening of the commerce sector and the prevalence of the more infectious UK variant of COVID-19, has dropped from 1 to 0.99.
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"We are on the verge of a renewed outbreak," task force members said, noting Israel's relatively high average weekly infection rate of 5%.
According to Health Ministry data released Thursday, 4,143 people tested posted for the coronavirus on Wednesday, for an infection rate of 5.2%.
Israel currently has 42,276 active cases of the coronavirus. There are 699 people in serious condition, 224 of whom are on ventilators.
While 743,228 people have recovered from the virus, 5,815 have died.
The task force found Pfizer's vaccine was effective against all virus strains found in the country and was therefore expected to prevent infection and prevent the long-term symptoms seen in around one in every 10 patients. The experts noted that those who had recovered from the virus, however, were at risk of reinfection with the South African and possibly New York variants. As a result, the report's authors that those who had recovered get the vaccine.
Given the possible threat posed by the variants, the report emphasized the importance of vaccinating Israelis aged 50 and over. Twelve percent of this population sector, or 300,000 people, have yet to get the jab.
With Ben-Gurion Airport set to reopen ahead of Israel's March 23 election, the task force warned "there is a chance additional corona strains will arrive in Israel, and we recommend ensuring testing of those entering and their quarantine." In the report, task force members also called to tighten mask-wearing guidelines given the highly infectious nature of coronavirus variants.
Meanwhile, with schoolchildren of all ages set to head back to school on Sunday, except for red localities, many local authority heads across the country have said in recent days that unvaccinated teachers would need to be tested for the coronavirus every few days to continue to teach.
According to Education Ministry data released, Thursday, Israel currently has 12,943 students infected with the coronavirus. There were 72,954 students in quarantine, Wednesday, an increase of around 18,000 children since Monday,
Israeli pre-schools have 2,880 active cases, elementary schools have 5,881, and middle schools and high schools have 4,182 cases. In addition, 1,236 members of pedagogical staff have COVID-19.
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