Israel's reproduction rate continued to climb over the past week, according to Health Ministry data released Friday. The country's reproduction rate has increased to 1.01, meaning that each confirmed carrier infects 1.01 other people.
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In the ultra-Orthodox community, the reproduction rate has climbed from 0.86 to 0.96. With their reproduction rate going from 1.17 to 1.06 over the last week, Arab Israeli communities were the only ones to see a decline in their reproduction rate.
The average weekly infection rate has increased slightly following the easing of some of the coronavirus restrictions on Feb. 21.
At 4%, Israel's infection rate was the lowest recorded since early December as 3,628 of the 92,177 people who tested for the coronavirus, Thursday, were found to be carrying COVID-19.
Israel currently has 41,047 active cases of the virus. The number of people in serious condition – 690 – has also declined. Of those in serious condition, 225 are on ventilators. Although 748,349 people have recovered from the virus, 5,832 have died.
So far, over 4.9 million have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Over 3.65 million have received both doses.
According to Health Ministry data, of the 935 people who died of the coronavirus in February, 553 had not been vaccinated, and 144 had received both doses of the vaccine. In January, 1,397 Israelis died of the virus, a number officials say was likely due to a combination of the country's lockdown and its vaccination campaign. Among patients that received the vaccine, two to four die every day, according to the data. For comparison, between 16 and 21 unvaccinated patients die every day from the virus.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted shortly after midnight Thursday that he had spoken with US Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday night.
The two discussed the success of Israel's vaccine drive, with Harris congratulating Netanyahu on Israel's high vaccination rate.
"We agreed to establish a joint team to strengthen cooperation in the fight against the coronavirus," he tweeted.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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