Israel's infection rate is 5.14%, according to Health Ministry data released Friday. Of the 131,819 people who tested for the virus Thursday, 6,314 were found to have COVID-19.
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There are 65,432 active cases of the virus in the country. There are 703 people in serious condition, 174 of whom are on ventilators.
Although 1,183,394 Israelis have recovered from the coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic, 7,611 have died.
On the vaccination front, 3,154,008 Israelis have received all three Health Ministry-recommended doses of the coronavirus vaccine, 6,081,276 have received at least one dose, while 5,605,489 have received two doses.
Speaking at a meeting of the so-called "coronavirus cabinet" Thursday, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of Public Health Services at the Health Ministry said, "Barely any of the central components of the original educational framework aimed at reining in infections in the education system remain in place: Some of them were removed by the government and the Education [Culture, and Sports] Committee, and some cannot be implemented under current morbidity levels."
The government's failed policies for fighting the coronavirus are dangerous, destructive, incorrect, in contrast to the repeated demands of Health Ministry officials, and have led to mass infection and a consistent increase in the number of seriously ill and deaths, the government's advisory panel on the virus said.
The unprecedented criticism comes as nearly 1,200 Israelis have died of COVID-19 in the fourth wave of the outbreak thus far, with between 20 and 30 new deaths recorded each day, and between 8,000 and 10,000 new cases confirmed each day in recent weeks.
Calling the current situation one of the greatest failures of the Education Ministry and the current government, the experts said the way the school year began and is set to reopen next week [following the Sukkot holiday] does "not include the majority of components that were planned to be included by the Health Ministry, and they are [merely] minimal tools to bring down the infection rate.
As Israeli students across the country return to school, "this could lead to an increase in morbidity, and because we are already struggling to provide optimal care to all patients that require intensive care and ECMO [machines], we could see severe instances of prioritizing young patients who require critical care," the experts said, in remarks echoing those by a number of hospital directors who spoke to Israel Hayom in recent weeks.
Appearing to say mass gatherings were responsible for current morbidity levels, they said that "continuing to hold out on hope morbidity [levels] will decrease despite the return to studies, just to avoid having to impose a single, most minimal restriction on gatherings, is unreasonable.
"There is no logic to holding large gatherings like sporting events at a time of record, uncontrollable infections, and when dozens of young, seriously ill patients are coming in for treatment every day."
Panel members said: "The extent of the ongoing morbidity over the last month is taking a serious toll, costing us many lives, and despite the hopes for a decrease in morbidity levels thanks to the vaccination campaign, it is impossible and illogical to continue down the current path" and a change in policy for the near future is needed "until a significant and continuous decrease in serious illness has been proven."
The experts further said it was a serious mistake for the government to base its policies on a desire not to pay compensation to businesses and leave the market open. They said the current policy amounted to "dealing with [the pandemic] for an open-ended amount of time with barely any central effort to thwart or decrease infections."
Experts called to tighten restrictions on gathering so that no more than 300 people are allowed to convene in indoor spaces and continue to make vaccines accessible to Israelis aged 12 and over who have yet to be vaccinated, as well as those who have yet to receive the third dose of the vaccine.
They further recommended the widespread use of monoclonal antibody therapy REGEN-COV administered to patients that can prevent them from becoming seriously ill and for further restrictions on the education system to be imposed.
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