With Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur behind us, Israel is seeing a spike in the COVID virus reproduction rate, the number of people infected by a confirmed carrier, the Health Ministry reported Thursday evening.
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As of Thursday night, the reproduction rate had jumped from 1.06 on Wednesday to 1.14.
Since the pandemic reached Israel in early 2020, 7,465 Israelis have died of the virus, 18 of whom succumbed to the virus on Wednesday and Thursday alone.
On Friday, the Health Ministry reported 3,171 new COVID cases, but noted that the number was skewed because tests were not conducted on Yom Kippur, although processing continued.
Video: Adam Geffen
As of Friday morning, 658 COVID patients were hospitalized in serious condition, including 182 on ventilators. On Yom Kippur (Thursday), 64 patients were added to the list of serious cases, and another 30 on Friday.
There were 35 children age 18 and under in the hospital with COVID, including five who were listed in serious or critical condition. A total of 34 pregnant women and 17 newly-delivered mothers were also hospitalized with COVID – 11 of whom were in serious condition. Five of the women were on ventilators and two required ECMO support. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of the pregnant women and new mothers hospitalized for COVID are unvaccinated.
Of all hospitalized COVID patients, 61% are unvaccinated, and another 27% were vaccinated with the original two doses. Only 9% of hospitalized COVID patients received the two additional doses plus the booster shot. When it comes to the patients on ventilators, 71% (132) are unvaccinated and 48 (26%) were vaccinated.
As for the patients on ECMO machines, 88% are unvaccinated.
Some 820,000 Israelis age 12 and over (13% of the population) were still unvaccinated as of Friday.
According to the Health Ministry's traffic light system, which grades cities, towns, and communities based on their COVID numbers, 137 cities in Israel were listed "red" on Friday, meaning that 25% of the population lives in "red" cities or towns. There were 220 orange cities (home to 45% of the population), 289 yellow cities, and 468 green communities.
Meanwhile, two aircraft landed in Israel on Friday morning carrying shipments of the 2 million rapid testing kits Israel has ordered as part of its school COVID testing program.
The kits were ordered from Korea in a joint project by the Education Ministry, Health Ministry, Magen David Adom, and Geffen Medical. A third plane carrying more kits was due to land later Friday. In the last few days, some 20 planes have already landed with cargoes of testing kits.
Days before the Sukkot festival begins, the Health Ministry reported that 147,000 public school students and 3,125 staff members were in quarantine. Thus far, 25.9% of public school students have been vaccinated against COVID.
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