Israel’s serious coronavirus cases have doubled within a week and now stand at 219, according to data published by the Health Ministry on Monday.
As serious cases continue to rise, the discrepancy between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients becomes more evident. According to Health Ministry data, 14 percent of Israelis over 20 are unvaccinated, and they account for 50 percent of serious cases.
The R number – the average number of people each coronavirus carrier infects – continues to climb and now stands at 1.95. Among people aged 60 and older, the R number climbed to 2.11.
The R number is calculated from data from the previous 10 days, and any number above 1 indicates that the virus is actively spreading.
Also on Monday, the Health Ministry reported 21,501 new confirmed cases. Of these, 2,393 have already recovered from COVID. However, due to the recent shift to antigen tests, this number may not represent the true number of new cases.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said that people self-testing for COVID should swab their throat as well as their nose when using rapid antigen kits to increase the chances of detecting the omicron variant.
Sharon Alroy-Preis, Israel’s public health chief, said that people exposed to a carrier should take more than one test or at least wait three days since exposure before testing with rapid kits.
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