As the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus continues its spread across the country, a new report by the Military Intelligence task force on the coronavirus has found more Israelis have contracted the coronavirus over the last weeks than have been infected in all of 2021. Throughout 2021, some 960,500 Israelis contracted the disease, while in January 2022, around 1.16 million tested positive for COVID-19.
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The task force analyzed the prevalence of pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome, or PIMS, during the previous Delta wave. With PIMS thus far believed to impact one in every 30,000 Israeli children who contract the disease, task force members asserted that between 100 and 200 Israeli children could expect to suffer from PIMS in the coming weeks. Four children are currently hospitalized with the condition across Israel.
Israel's infection rate stands at 21.83%, according to Health Ministry data published Wednesday night. Of the 406,007 Israelis to test for the coronavirus that day, 76,155 were found to carry the disease. The reproduction rate is 1.16.
There are 518,096 active cases of the virus. There are 915 people in serious condition, 198 of whom are on ventilators and 20 of whom are hooked up to ECMO machines.
Although 2,072,471 Israelis have recovered from the virus since the outbreak of the pandemic, 8,513 have died of the disease.
Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash authorized a fourth dose of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for all high-risk Israelis aged 18 and over with pre-existing conditions and their caretakers as well as Israeli adults at high risk of exposure to the disease.
The move followed data indicating a fourth dose of the vaccine offers twice the protection from infection of that of three doses to Israelis aged 60 and over and three to five times the protection from serious illness from the disease.
Another factor behind the move was the high rate of infections and hospitalizations amid the fifth, Omicron-fueled wave of the pandemic.
The fourth dose will be administered a minimum of four months after inoculation with the third dose of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, researchers at the University Hospital of Zurich say they have figured out how to identify patients at higher risk of suffering from long COVID.
The researchers, whose findings were published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications journal, were able to predict with 77% accuracy which confirmed COVID carriers were at higher risk of suffering from longer-term coronavirus symptoms. Such high-risk individuals were found to have a shortage of lgM and lgG3 antibodies, the levels of which normally increase upon infection with the virus as part of the body's effort to combat disease and infection. Asthma patients were also found to be more likely to suffer from long COVID, the symptoms of which include lethargy, weakness, and muscle pain.
"Our findings may not prevent the outbreak of long COVID, but they are important because they identify up from who is at increased risk," Dr. Onur Boyman, one of the authors of the study, said. "Thus, doctors can make preparations for such an individual and help with inflammation and symptoms that can develop in advance, thereby preventing them from presenting so severely. Likewise, a future, focused study may explain the connection and allow for new medications for the problem."
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