Once the number of COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition hits 1,200, quality of care will be affected and the Health Ministry will ask the government to instate a lockdown to curb the spread of the virus, Israel's national coronavirus response coordinator, Professor Salman Zarka, said at a press conference Monday.
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Zarka spoke as the number of new COVID cases hit a record high on Monday. As of Monday morning, there were 222 COVID patients in serious condition, 71 patients in critical condition, 58 COVID patients on ventilators and 12 on ECMO machines.
"It's important we don't get to those numbers, and certainly not to a situation in which the hospitals can't cope. The more the numbers go up, we might have to approach the government and ask for a way of cutting them down significantly, like a lockdown. I hope we don't wind up there," Zarka said.
"Minor restrictions won't help – a lockdown like the first one, with people not allowed farther than 100 meters outside the house – will," he added.
According to Zarka, the number of confirmed cases is rising consistently, and has not yet peaked. "We have the ability to protect ourselves and make it through the next three to five weeks safely. The vaccine protects against serious cases, as well as transmission, and is also effective against the Delta variant, which still exists."
Zarka said it was important that groups at higher risk of developing serious cases avoid large gatherings, even ones that comply with the Green Pass vaccination certificate guidelines.
"There should be as little contact as possible right now," he said. "Anyone suffering from respiratory symptoms must stay home, get tested, and not go to work or school – that's how we'll avoid the risk of transmission. Just like we made it through the previous waves because we were responsible for one another, we'll make it through the current one peacefully and healthfully," Zarka said.
Touching on the authorities' revised guidelines for COVID testing, Zarka said that Israelis age 60 and over and members of at-risk groups had received text messages from their HMOs informing them that they were entitled to PCR tests.
"We offered the tests to this population as a result of prioritizing and policies that were adjusted for the Omicron wave. In a wave like this, no country can test everyone using PCR kits," he explained.
"We haven't yet rejected members of other groups from being PCR tested. We are allowing the public to adjust its behavior to the situation and keeping tabs on the situation," Zarka added.
When asked about the high number of hospital workers unavailable because they had contracted the virus or were in self-isolation pending test results, Zarka said that health authorities were examining possibilities that would allow essential workers – in the healthcare sector and other fields – to work.
Zarka also said that steps were being taken to expand COVID testing in schools, and that the number of testing facilities in schools would be increased from 250-260 to 600 in the next few days.
Monday ended with 30,970 new confirmed cases. There were 169,117 active or symptomatic cases nationwide.
Also on Monday, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said he would evaluate the government's decision-making process during the fourth and fifth COVID waves in Israel.
"In the previous waves, we checked, among other things, how the crisis was handled at the national level, how the Health Ministry functioned, including the system of testing; economic programs; and actions taken by the Education Ministry. We intend to look into some of these issues in the current wave, and whether lessons were learned from previous ones," Englman said.
Englman said that one of the issues he intended to examine was the government and healthcare system's handling of tests, the efficiency of testing sites, and the vaccination program. Aspects to be evaluated include purchasing and process.
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