Over 9,000 Israelis have died since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago, according to Health Ministry data published on Thursday morning. The current death toll stands at 9,013 cases, which means that one in 1,000 Israelis have lost his or her life to COVID.
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As for the infection rate, it stands at 28.56%, with 60,537 Israelis having tested positive for the disease in the past 24 hours, of the 211,987 tested altogether. The reproduction rate decreased slightly and stands at 0.9.
There are 434,322 active cases in the country with 2,733 patients hospitalized. Of those, 1,147 are in serious condition. Currently, 80,745 Israelis are in quarantine, including 890 doctors and 1,948 nurses.
Thus far, 652,887 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,445,084 with three, 6,098,496 with two, and 6,691,702 have received one shot.
Israel also surpassed the three million caseload mark since the outbreak of the pandemic. It has reported 3,049,005 infections since March 2020, including 9,013 deaths.
Meanwhile, the IDF Home Front Command continues to monitor the spread of the highly infection BA.2 Omicron subvariant.
"The strain continues to spread in countries worldwide, currently without a uniform pattern," it said. "Due to its high transmission rate and [countries'] delay in caseload reports, its actual spread is considered to be more significant than reported."
In South Africa, the country that first detected Omicron, but that also first reported a decrease in its infection wave, has said recently that BA.2 cases are on the rise, making up 30% of daily caseloads. The offshoot now makes up most of the cases in Denmark, where BA.2 began spreading in mid-January. The subvariant has also been reported in India, Qatar, and the Philippines.
Professor Cyrille Cohen, head of the Immunotherapy Lab at Bar Ilan University, said his team has been following the new mutation.
"We have received reports that in very rare occurrences, people that were infected with Omicron could also… be infected with BA.2," he said stressing that although such reinfections do occur, they are uncommon.
Cohen also added that the BA.2 offshoot differs from Omicron in subtle ways. BA.2, often dubbed "stealth Omicron" by the media, is commonly referred to as a relative of the strain – a COVID variant that is largely considered to be milder than previous offshoots.
"Compared to Delta or Alpha, Omicron is a very mild variant in terms of severe disease," Cohen said, expressing hope that through natural exposure and vaccines, the morbidity wave could ebb.
He also seconded the government's decision to phase out the use of the so-called "green pass" vaccine certificates, which grant vaccinated or recovered COVID patients access to some public spaces, given the spread of the virus in Israel.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
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