The coronavirus morbidity wave seems to be abating in Israel, according to data published by the Health Ministry Thursday.
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Of the 139,018 Israelis who were screened for the virus in the past 24 hours, 8,800 (6.57%) tested positive. This compared to Tuesday and Wednesday when almost 10,000 Israelis were found to carry the virus.
The reproduction rate, which relates to the number of people each confirmed carrier infects, is 1.15.
There are currently 79,249 active cases in the country, with 1,120 Israelis hospitalized. Of those, 186 are in critical condition, and 135 are on ventilators. Thirteen Israelis have lost their lives to COVID in the past 24 hours.
Israel has reported 1,024,100 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. So far, 6,909 Israelis have succumbed to the disease.
Meanwhile, hundreds of parents have stormed health maintenance organizations and pediatric hospitals in recent weeks looking to vaccinate their children between the ages of 5-11 ahead of the school year slated to begin on Sept. 1, HMOs and pediatricians have said this week.
The ministry has so far approved the Pfizer vaccines for all Israelis over the age of 12. However, children with serious illnesses below that age can receive special approval from the ministry to get vaccinated.
"The moment vaccines were approved for 12-16-year-olds, parents began contacting family doctors and health care providers with questions about inoculating children younger than 12," Dr. Doron Dushnitzky, a pediatric specialist at the Leumit health provider, said. "Some parents, whose children are sick, asked them to be vaccinated but were turned down because the disease was not on the list approved by the ministry.
"Such requests increased even more in recent weeks, and certainly many parents want to vaccinate their children as soon as the age group is approved in Israel, because it will protect their children, but also because upon receiving a green pass, they will no longer need to take COVID tests so often," he said. "Parents are concerned, both in Israel and abroad, about the harm the coronavirus can cause to their children, and it is this concern that prompts more and more of them to vaccinate their kids."
According to data obtained by Israel Hayom, 500 children between the ages of 5-11 have already received their first dose. No severe side effects have been reported so far, and some HMOs said they came across no side effects at all.
Meanwhile, the New England Journal of Medicine published on Thursday the results of the largest-ever coronavirus vaccine study conducted by Israel's Clalit Research Institute in collaboration with Harvard University.
The research was conducted based on anonymous data of 2 million patients at Clalit – one of Israel's largest healthcare providers.
According to the study, the use of Pfizer vaccines marginally increases the risk of heart inflammation, but the risk is higher among those infected with the coronavirus.
Among every 100,000 patients who get the vaccine, 1 to 5 will likely develop myocarditis who would not otherwise have developed it.
That rate is much higher - 11 per 100,000 - among people infected with the coronavirus, researchers said.
Experts compared adverse event rates in 884,828 vaccinated individuals and an equal number of unvaccinated people. Overall, 21 persons reported myocarditis in the vaccinated group – mostly young men – compared with six people among the unvaccinated.
Most adverse events in vaccinated people were mild, but some, such as myocarditis, are potentially serious, researchers said.
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Experts also analyzed adverse event rates in more than 240,000 infected patients. The results indicate that COVID-19 infection is itself a very strong risk factor for myocarditis, and it also substantially increases the risk of other serious adverse events, they said.
"For me this is a really terrific paper in part because it actually takes data from the same system, and tries to provide more information, not just about the potential risks of vaccination, but also the potential benefits of vaccination," said Dr. Grace Lee of Stanford University, whose editorial was published with the report.
Gilad Zwick and Yori Yalon contributed to this report.
