Health experts were cautiously optimistic on Friday that the latest COVID wave, propelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, showed signs of receding.
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The Health Ministry reported Friday morning that of the 133,423 Israelis screened for COVID on Thursday, 8,078 (6.71%) tested positive, in contrast to just a few days ago, when almost 10,000 Israelis tested positive for the virus.
On Friday, there were 76,323 active or symptomatic cases in the country, and 1,086 Israelis were hospitalized. The hospitalized included 191 in critical condition and 149 who were on ventilators.
Since the pandemic hit Israel early last ear, Israel has identified 1,031,810 confirmed cases, and its death toll stood at 6,943 on Friday.
Meanwhile, the start of the school year, scheduled for Sept. 1, continued to be clouded by the resurgence of the coronavirus. On Sunday, the Coronavirus Cabinet said that the school year would begin on Sept. 1, as scheduled, however, it is expected to convene again on Sunday – after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett returns from Washington – to discuss the controversial decision.
"We will reassess the opening of the school year in the next few days," Head of the Public Health Services Headquarters at the ministry Ilana Gens said. "We will try our utmost to go ahead with the opening as planned."
Optimism was also expressed by experts from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who advise the government on COVID, who published an analysis this week – based on COVID data gathered up until Aug. 28 – saying that while some disruptions to the beginning of the school year could be expected, the wave was unlikely to spike again.
Researchers said that the booster shot campaign had already brought down the number of seriously ill patents, and estimated that the infection rate would continue to decline.
Assuming all COVID restrictions remain in place and Israelis continue to get vaccinated, experts estimate the reproduction rate – which relates to the number of people each confirmed carrier infects – will go down to 0.85 by Rosh Hashanah, which starts on Monday, Sept. 6. A reproduction rate under 1 means an outbreak is subsiding.
"The current infection wave has been reined in thanks to the booster campaign and mild restrictions," they noted.
Since the launch of the booster campaign, 1,860,227 Israelis have received a third COVID jab.
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