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More young Israelis are hospitalized with COVID-19 than older ones, according to new data suggesting Israel’s vaccination campaign may have an effect.
On Wednesday, the number of Israelis under 60 newly hospitalized with COVID-19 surpassed the number of new hospitalizations among those 60 and over.
There were 708 new hospitalizations among the younger group and 575 for the older group. The change first occurred on February 4 and the gap seems to have widened since then.
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The figure represents the total of new hospitalizations for the previous week. There are 1,598 Israelis in hospitals – more than the sum of the new hospitalizations, as many patients stay in the hospital for more than a week.
Figures compiled by Oxford-based Our World in Data show hospitalization rates in Israel. (Courtesy)
Israel primarily uses the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires two doses several weeks apart for its full effect, but appears to start providing protection within days of receiving the first dose.
As of February 6, the most recent day for data to be available by age group, 90 percent of Israelis over 60 had received their first dose of the vaccine and 80 percent had received their second dose.
Among 16 to 59 year olds, 37% received their first dose and 20% the second. The vaccine is available to all Israelis aged 16 and over.
Forty-two percent of the general population received one dose of the vaccine and 27% received both doses. Israel vaccinated a total of 3.7 million people with the first vaccine and 2.3 million with the two vaccines.
Our World in Data, a science website based at the University of Oxford, gathered data from Israel with the help of Israeli researchers. He focused on Israel to assess the impact of its world-class vaccination campaign.
He noted that recent changes in infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths cannot be attributed solely to the impact of vaccination. For example, new virus variants and the nationwide lockdown came into play around the same time as the vaccination campaign and are also influencing the data.
Eran Segal, researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Israel, said Thursday that for people 60 and over, since the peak of the pandemic in mid-January, there were 58% fewer cases, 44% fewer new hospitalizations and 40% fewer deaths.
New confirmed cases for all Israelis have been trending down since mid-January, but for those under 60, the weekly average is still over 37,000 per week. The pandemic peaked in Israel on January 17 with an average of more than 8,000 new cases per day.
An Israeli receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Jerusalem on February 10, 2021 (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Alarmingly, the number of hospitalizations for young Israelis appears to be on the rise since mid-December, despite the vaccination campaign, which began on December 19, and the national lockdown, which began on January 8.
In addition, the share of new cases among children and adolescents has increased since the end of January, despite the closure of schools.
Officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have blamed more contagious variants for the apparent impermeability of the third wave epidemic to the lockdown and vaccination campaign.
The total number of hospitalizations for those aged 60 and over, and for the population as a whole, has been declining from its peak in mid-January to nearly 2,000 hospitalizations.
The number of new deaths has also been declining since the end of January, when it reached its highest rate since the start of the pandemic with 65 deaths per week.
The Ynet news site said Thursday that no hospital staff had achieved an inoculation rate above 90%, including those who had recovered from the virus, according to figures from the Ministry of Health. In some hospitals, less than 60% of staff received the first dose of the vaccine.
Nationwide, there were a total of 712,078 infections and 67,796 active cases. The death toll is 5,266.
The vaccination rate has stabilized in recent days, prompting officials to push for more young Israelis to receive the vaccines and to crack down on anti-vaccine comments on social media.
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