With Israelis increasingly experiencing pandemic fatigue, the Health Ministry is weighing the restoration of a limited number of coronavirus restrictions to rein in the growing infection rate.
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Among those restrictions are mandatory quarantine for those who come into contact with a coronavirus carrier, mandatory masking at outdoor gatherings, increased enforcement of the mask mandate in closed spaces, as well as steps aimed at limiting the circles of infection like testing at schools, the Green Class framework, and antigen testing.
In addition, the Health Ministry plans to launch a campaign to encourage vaccination with a third dose of the vaccine among adults and vaccination with a fourth dose among those at risk. Children will not be targeted by the campaign at this stage.
On Tuesday, the government was set to discuss the continued use of coronavirus monitors at schools and possible ways to contend with the uptick in morbidity levels.
Israel's reproduction rate surpassed 1 over the weekend, a level not seen since January. While the number of patients in serious condition is on the decline, the assessment is that infection levels will continue to climb as a result of Purim celebrations held last week.
There are currently 57,457 active cases of the virus. Of the 80,648 Israelis who tested for the virus Monday, 12,920 were found to have the disease for an infection rate of 20.5%.
The reproduction rate is now 1.23.
There are 333 Israelis in serious condition, 139 of whom are on ventilators and 21 of whom are hooked up to ECMO machines.
Although 3,717,230 Israelis have recovered from the virus since the outbreak of the pandemic, 10,431 have died.
"I believe that in the timespan of this week, we will see an increase in serious cases hospitalized, and that is what most concerns us. These are people who are at risk of dying," a senior Health Ministry official said. "We see the confirmed infection data, and we see the increase in the virus' presence in the sewage analysis, and we understand that we are in the middle of a wave. Whether it's the end of a fifth wave of the beginning of a sixth is a matter of semantics."
The rise in infections is believed to stem from three factors: Purim parties and the public's general sense that the pandemic is over. alongside the cancellation of nearly all coronavirus restrictions, the dominance of the BA.2 subvariants - which is considered 50% more infectious than the Omicron, and dwindling protection from infection offered by vaccines.
At this stage, there is no data indicating those who contracted Omicron can be reinfected with the BA.2 subvariant.
Professor Ran Balicer, the chairman of the Health Ministry's pandemic response team and chief innovation officer at Clalit Health Services, told an Israeli Society for Quality in Medicine conference, "We can't talk about the coronavirus being back because it never went anywhere, and it will accompany us with new variants. We need to establish mechanisms that allow us to respond to such an event without being surprised when it happens and knowing how to block [it] at an early stage to lessen the disease's impact on the weaker members of society. The weak and elderly populations are those that are at risk and are more influenced by fake news."
Balicer presented data indicating three times as many Israelis aged 70 and from lower socio-economic levels contracted and died from the coronavirus, 3%, than those with a high household income, 0.8%. Just 12.3% of Israelis aged 70 and over with high socioeconomic status were unvaccinated compared to 31% among those with low socioeconomic status.
"One of the central reasons for this difference is significant disparities in vaccination. There is no need at this point to talk about an additional dose. It's important for the populations that have not received a booster shot to do so because the disease is with us, and there is clear evidence that a third and fourth dose significantly protect from serious illness," he said.
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