Israel braces for 4,800 hospitalized COVID patients – four times the country’s record

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The government is forecasting that the number of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus will double every 10 days, reaching 4,800 people – half of them with serious cases – by September 10.

According to Health Ministry figures, the number of serious COVID cases rose on Wednesday to 400, the highest figure since March. About 150 of these patients are not fully vaccinated. Israel hit its highest number of serious cases in January, with 1,200 patients – about half of the number predicted for next month.

Due to this projection, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz agreed on Tuesday to add new health care positions each time the number of hospitalized patients doubles. According to the agreement, which will be brought to the coronavirus cabinet for approval on Wednesday, when hospitalized COVID patient figures double, 100 new positions will be added for doctors, 500 for nurses and 200 for paramedical, cleaning and administrative staff.

The ministerial committee is also expected to approve an expanded Green Pass scheme, opening some services and venues only for people who are either vaccinated or having recovered, as well as limiting gatherings to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, alongside introduction of more widely available rapid tests.

Dr. Zeev Feldman, chairman of Government Physicians Association and head of the pediatric and epilepsy unit at Sheba Medical Center, told Haaretz that adding extra personnel is necessary, but insufficient. “You can’t recruit 100 physicians in August to solve the problem,” he said. “We need intensive care specialists, and it takes years to train them.”

Feldman added, “You can’t assemble a health care system in a heartbeat during a crisis – you need to build it for the long term. That hasn’t been happening over the past few years, so we’re now forced into emergency scenarios.”

The system needs reinforcement at every level, Feldman said of the new agreement – “doctors, nursing care workers and paramedics and anyone else who can help shoulder the burden.” He added that he hopes the staffing increases would not be reversed once the crisis has passed, as the Finance Ministry recently tried to do by eliminating 600 jobs that had been created during the pandemic.

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Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians, also criticized the agreement. “We’re always trying to take preventative measures, but we’re constantly responding too late. There is already crowding in hospitals and the community – not just because of the coronavirus – and that is impairing treatment. So we need [the staffing increases] now, and not under the condition of increased infection,” he said.

Davidovitch added that the agreement “doesn’t mention anything about the strained public health care system, which is responsible for epidemiological investigations and persuading people to get vaccinated. It also suffers from a significant shortage of manpower.”

Due to the recent uptick in cases, Bennett announced that Israel may approve expanding the “Green Pass” proof of immunity program to apply to Israelis aged three and up, as well as limiting gatherings to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, following a meeting with health and treasury officials on Tuesday.