ISRAEL COVID-19 UPDATE

Thirty Israelis were reported to have died of Covid-19 within two days, the Health Ministry showed, as the fourth wave continues to surge across the country, striking hardest young, unvaccinated citizens.

In total, 535 people have died since the start of September – Last September, 651 people died.
The month with the highest number of deaths was January 2021, when 1,444 Israelis succumbed to COVID-19.

Hadassah is treating 50 COVID-19 patients in its two coronavirus internal medicine wards, two coronavirus intensive care units, and its coronavirus paediatric intensive care unit. Twenty of the patients were ventilated in critical condition, including two 40-year-olds who were hooked up to ECMO machines. Two young children, ages six months and two years, were also in serious condition with the virus. Both of them suffer from severe underlying medical conditions.

Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who have been advising the government since the start of the pandemic, shared a report on Friday that they presented to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in which they:

• Predicted a continued decline in the infection rate

• Predicted that the number of serious cases would decline, but that it would take another week or two before this decline was felt in the country’s hospitals.

• Said that since serious cases tend to be younger people and the unvaccinated, they are hospitalised for longer periods of time and are therefore crowding the country’s intensive care units.

“The virus is progressing through the unvaccinated population or those whose vaccination has expired,” the researchers wrote.

The National COVID-19 Experts Committee warned the government last week that its policy of relying on a third booster shot and minimal economic restrictions is not proving itself. They also said that Israel, like other countries, is likely to be faced with the tragic dilemma of prioritising young patients in need of critical care for coronavirus or other ailments over senior patients and called for a change in policy.

The Hebrew University researchers said that returning to routine this October after the holidays could lead to an increase in infections. But, like the ministers, they expressed some optimism that when the Green Pass is adjusted to only include those who are fully vaccinated or recovered (within the last six months or with a booster shot) then the country could and should see the significant reduction in infection that it is waiting for.

Editors Notes:

THIS ARTICLE BY MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN FIRST APPEARED IN THE JERUSALEM POST