Coronavirus Commissioner Professor Nachman Ash warned Wednesday that the relentless COVID infection rate may drive the Health Ministry to advise the government to impose another lockdown before the March 23 election.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
In an interview with local radio station 103FM, Ash said that the decision will depend on the morbidity rate and warned that the lockdown might be extended until after the election.
Should a nationwide lockdown be imposed, it would be the fourth time the Israeli economy will shutter in the span of one year.
Ash attributed the persistent COVID reproduction rate to the British variant of the coronavirus, which significantly increases the risk of serious illness and hospitalization.
The Health Ministry reported Wednesday that of the 91,122 Israelis screened from the virus on Tuesday, 4,265 tested positive, placing the infection rate at 4.8%.
Israel has reported 787,211 cases and 5,797 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. To date, 738,681 Israelis have recovered from the disease. As of Wednesdy, some 1,195 COVID patients were hospitalized, 717 of them are in serious condition and 224 are on ventilators.
So far, 4,811,712 Israelis have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and 3,503,621 have been fully immunized.
Several other mutations have made their way to Israel, as well. Most recently, the Health Ministry detected three cases of the COVID strain found in New York.
All three infections were diagnosed in members of one family, the ministry clarified.
"We will see more and more virus mutations, that is the nature of a virus," Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Hezi Levi, adding that the ministry was doing its utmost to detect variants early on.
Addressing the upcoming elections, Levi said, "We are walking a thin line between the need to get Israelis to the polling stations and the need to curb the mutations, but that is the current reality."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
Addressing the growing infection rate in the Arab sector, Ayman Saif, the head of the Health Ministry's coronavirus response in the community, said that 70% of the at-risk Arab population had been vaccinated.
"Two weeks ago, the British variant had not reached the Arab sector yet, but now it is significant," he said. "We will focus on the Bedouin population, young people, and the residents of East General. We will use Ramadan as a decisive factor."
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
