Israel's coronavirus infection rate stood at 15.09% Thursday, according to Health Ministry data released that morning. Of the 88,523 people who tested for the virus Wednesday, 11,799 were found to have the disease.
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There are 108,407 active cases of the virus. There are 637 people in serious condition, 233 of whom are on ventilators and 26 of whom are hooked up to ECMO machines.
Although 3,476,792 Israelis have recovered from COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic, 10,076 have died.
Experts say the highly transmissible Omicron variant that dominated the fifth wave of the pandemic in Israel, or any other variant for that matter, is unlikely to lead to herd immunity.
"Herd immunity is an elusive concept and doesn't apply to coronavirus," says Dr. Don Milton of the University of Maryland's School of Public Health.
Herd immunity is when enough of a population is immune to a virus that it's hard for the germ to spread to those who aren't protected by vaccination or prior infection.
For example, herd immunity against measles requires about 95% of a community to be immune. Early hopes of herd immunity against the coronavirus faded for several reasons.
One is that antibodies developed from available vaccines or previous infections dwindle with time. While vaccines offer strong protection against severe illness, waning antibodies mean an infection is still possible, including for those who are boosted.
Then there is the huge variation in vaccinations. In some low-income countries, less than 5% of the population is vaccinated. Rich countries are struggling with vaccine hesitancy, and young children still are not eligible in many places.
As long as the virus spreads, it mutates. This helps the virus survive and gives rise to new variants. Those mutations can become better at evading the protection people have from vaccines or an earlier infection.
Populations are moving toward "herd resistance," where infections will continue, but people have enough protection that future spikes won't be as disruptive to society, Milton says.
Many scientists believe COVID-19 will eventually become like the flu and cause seasonal outbreaks but not huge surges.
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