The Health Ministry reported 46,347 coronavirus cases on Friday morning. Altogether, 185,992 Israelis were screened for the virus in the past 24 hours, which puts the infection rate at 24.92%. The reproduction rate stands at 0.9, the same as the day before.
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There are 373,160 active cases in the country with 2,715 patients hospitalized. Of those, 1,132 are in serious condition. Currently, 73,229 Israelis are in self-isolation.
Thus far, 658,505 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,446,649 with three, 6,101,459 with two, and 6,692,301 have received one shot.
Israel has reported 3,094,984 cases, including 9,080 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020. Since Thursday morning, 67 Israelis have lost their life due to COVID.
Meanwhile, a new study by researchers from Bar Ilan University and the Galilee Medical Center founds a strong link between vitamin D levels and the severity of COVID.
Scientists concluded that vitamin D deficiency significantly increases the risk of serious illness or death upon contracting the virus. The findings were published on Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One.
"We found it remarkable and striking to see the difference in the chances of becoming a severe patient when you are lacking in vitamin D compared to when you're not," Dr. Amiel Dror, a Galilee Medical Center physician and Bar Ilan researcher who was part of the team behind the study, told The Times of Israel.
The study is based on research conducted during Israel's first two waves of the coronavirus before vaccines became widely available.
Another Israeli study published last summer came to similar conclusions about increased chances of becoming seriously ill or dying with COVID if there is vitamin D deficiency.
The research conducted in a Galilee hospital found that 26% of coronavirus patients with vitamin D deficiency died versus 3% for other patients.
"What we're seeing when vitamin D helps people with COVID infections is a result of its effectiveness in bolstering the immune systems to deal with viral pathogens that attack the respiratory system," Dror said. "This is equally relevant for Omicron as it was for previous variants."
In related news, South Africa – where the Omicron strain was first detected – is seeing more cases of the BA.2 subvariant, sometimes called "stealth Omicron", with no clear indication that it is substantially different from the original mutation, a senior scientist said on Friday.
Michelle Groome, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, showed in a presentation that BA.2 accounted for 23% of the 450 samples from January sequenced by South Africa's genomic surveillance network and the original strain 75%.
Of the 2,243 samples from December that were sequenced, BA.2 accounted for 4% and the original strain 94%.
"We are seeing this increase with the BA.2, we are still trying to get more information on this particular sub-lineage ... and so we are increasing sequencing from those provinces where we are seeing increases [in cases] monitoring the proportion that is due to BA.2," Groome told a news conference.
"At this stage, there is no indication that there would be ... differences between these different sub-lineages of Omicron. As we saw with Delta there were lots of lineages and we didn't see a lot of difference between them, but we will keep monitoring," she added.
Asked whether there were signs BA.2 was causing different symptoms, she said she was not expecting marked changes, adding that scientists will analyze hospitalization data for clues about the severity of illness linked to the subvariant.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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