Israel: Delta variant cases soar | More than six thousand infections per day; the highest figure since February

Israel has recorded the largest increase in coronavirus cases since February. This Tuesday the health authorities reported the detection of more than six thousand cases and the leader of the Israeli response to covid-19, Salman Zarka said this is a “key” moment and called on the population to get vaccinated and continue to respect the restrictions.

Israel’s health ministry has reported more than 6,200 new cases of covid-19, with 4.48% positivity out of more than 130,000 tests performed in the past 24 hours. Despite the fact that Israel has one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, for weeks, he suffered a major outbreak of infections caused by the Delta variant, a more contagious strain.

Health pass

Israeli authorities had already lifted most health measures to prevent the spread of the virus. However, after the increase in cases, travel restrictions were tightened and the use of a chin strap became mandatory in confined spaces again. In this sense, the in charge of pandemic management, Salman Zarka, warned that this is a key moment and called on the population to respect the restrictions and get vaccinated. “I want to restore some optimism for all of us and ask that the population be vaccinated, wear a mask and respect the ‘green card’ regulations”, he assured in reference to the pass which limits access to certain closed spaces for unvaccinated people.

The restriction is similar to that recently applied in France and Italy. In Israel, the health pass valid until December 31, 2021 will be intended for people who have already received the two doses and for people recovered from the coronavirus. People who have a negative PCR will have a pass valid for 72 hours from the time the test was performed.

Third dose

So far more than 85 percent of the adult population in Israel is already fully vaccinated. More than 5.8 million Israelis have already received the first dose Yes 5.4 million count both doses. This month, the authorities began to enforce a third booster dose for people over 60, according to the Ministry of Health more than 570,000 people received the third dose to boost immunity. Data released by the government shows that unvaccinated people, especially those over the age of 60, have a higher risk of developing severe clinical pictures of covid-19.

“This vaccination effort is a great success”, celebrated the Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Benet, about the third dose. Benet once again encouraged the population which still does not have one to be vaccinated. “Today, 90 percent of serious cases involve people over 50, or nine out of ten. Therefore, I ask Israeli citizens of this age to be very careful in the coming weeks, ”he warned.

High risk

This Monday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the United States They added Israel to the list of high-risk countries and advised the American population to avoid traveling to that destination. The CDC placed Israel in the “Level 4: very high level of covid-19” and they asked their citizens who are due to travel to Israel to make sure they have the full schedule of coronavirus vaccines, although they warned that due to the health situation in Israel, they also risked to contract and spread variants of covid-19.

For its part, Minister of Health, Nitzan Horowitz, assured this Monday that general quarantine would be a “last resort” and that the government will avoid achieving this measure. “The coronavirus is not going to go away any time soon”Horowitz was quoted by the Israeli daily Haaretz. “We are putting in place the infrastructure that will allow us to live with the coronavirus in the long term. “added.

Out of a total of 9.3 million people residing in Israel, more than one million people eligible for vaccination have not yet done so. The prime minister insisted on Tuesday on speeding up vaccination to avoid a fourth national shutdown, before the Jewish holidays in September.