Israel's coronavirus infection rate stood at 2.08% as 1,398 of the 76,943 people who tested for the virus Sunday were found to have COVID-19.
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The reproduction rate is 1.34.
Of the 11,606 active cases in the country, 108 people are in serious condition, a record in this fourth wave of the pandemic. Twenty of those in serious condition are on ventilators.
Although 842,888 Israelis have recovered from the virus, 6,460 have died.
According to Health Ministry data, 7,707 vaccinated Israelis have been infected with the virus, 1,937 of whom tested positive for the coronavirus last week. Among those vaccinated and infected with the virus, 596 required hospitalization, 389 of whom were in serious condition and 132 had died.
Internal data presented to senior Health Ministry officials indicate it is safe to administer a third vaccine dose six months after the second dose. According to the data seen by ministry officials, a third dose administered to immunocompromised individuals did not result in any side effects beyond those recorded following the second and first doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
At a press conference Sunday, Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash said: "We continue to see an increase in the number of confirmed and seriously ill [patients]. The data is worrying."
He said, "We are seeing an increase in the number of hospitalized and seriously ill patients, and we aren't seeing an increase in those on ventilators … This could be the result of the vaccines' protection, and we hope this is the case. We will need to see whether the numbers remain low in the coming days. To my mind, it is too early to determine."
According to Ash, the ministry was in the advanced stages of examining data to decide whether to administer a third vaccine dose by examining infection rates among vaccinated individuals to see whether the vaccines become less efficient at protecting against the virus over time.
According to Ash, should researchers note a decline in vaccine efficacy, the ministry would discuss administering a third, booster dose.
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