The Omicron infection wave continued to show signs of retreating on Tuesday, according to Health Ministry data. The coronavirus morbidity rate decreased by 0.42 and currently stands at 18.73%. Of the 108,571 who were screened for the disease in the past 24 hours, 20,340 tested positive.
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There are 169,437 active cases in the country with 2,077 patients hospitalized. Of those, 927 are in serious condition – 331 are critically ill, 271 are on ventilators and 28 are connected to ECMO machines. Currently, 33,634 Israelis are in quarantine.
Thus far, 703,276 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,457,108 with three, 6,114,764 with two, and 6,696,522 have received one shot.
Israel has reported 3,480,823 cases, including 9,651 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.
Similarly to Israel, western and northern European countries also reported a decrease in morbidity, as well as plans to ease restrictions on public life.
In Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz conferred with the country's 16 state governors on Wednesday to map a way out of COVID restrictions as official figures showed new infections beginning to subside.
Germany also saw infections caused by the Omicron variant, which is highly contagious but generally causes milder illness than previous strains, surge later than in several other European countries.
Officials have attributed this to restrictions that include curbs on private gatherings, the closure of night clubs and requirements for people to show proof of vaccination or recovery to enter restaurants and bars.
But other countries, including neighboring Denmark, also have moved faster to lift restrictions, and there are growing calls for Germany to follow suit. Already, many German states have moved to scrap rules that prevented people without proof of vaccination or recovery from visiting nonessential stores.
Germany's national disease control center has reported several days of slight drops in the country's infection rate, though it remains far above pre-Omicron levels.
"We are past the peak of the Omicron wave, pretty much exactly on the day I predicted a month ago," Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told Bild daily on Tuesday. That, he said, makes "modest loosening" of restrictions possible.
As Germany moves toward easing its latest restrictions, prospects of a vaccine mandate for all adults appear to be receding. Scholz came out in favor of such a mandate just before he became chancellor in December, but his three-party coalition is divided on the issue and he left it to parliament to come up with proposals.
At present, it's unclear when lawmakers will vote on bill and what if any kind of mandate would muster a majority. Even already-approved legislation requiring health sector workers to present proof of vaccination or recovery by mid-March has run into difficulties, although Berlin's highest court last week refused to temporarily block its implementation.
In the Netherlands, the government is expected to lift almost all COVID restrictions by Feb. 25 and return to normal life as cases and hospitalizations fall, the country's health minister said on Tuesday.
Bars, restaurants, and nightclubs will go back to pre-pandemic opening hours while social distancing and face masks will no longer be obligatory in most places.
The Dutch government imposed some of Europe's toughest restrictions in December after a surge in Omicron cases but has begun lifting them in stages.
"The country will open again," Health Minister Ernst Kuipers told a press conference this week. "We will go back to normal closing times we had before COVID, you don't have to keep 1.5 meters away anymore.
"Masks are obligatory only on public transport and in the airport. Keeping your distance and wearing a mask remain sensible, but there is no obligation," he said, warning, however, that the pandemic was "not over" and that vulnerable people still had to remain cautious.
Kuipers took office as part of Prime Minister Mark Rutte's new government in January and quickly signaled that he wanted to start getting society back to normal.
The Netherlands suffered two spates of rioting in 2021 over coronavirus restrictions, with police shooting and injuring several protesters in Rotterdam in November.
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In contrast, countries in eastern Europe – including Russia and Ukraine – reported growing rates of COVID infection, Dr. Hans Kluge said the 53-country region, which stretches to former Soviet republics into central Asia, has now tallied more than 165 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 1.8 million deaths linked to the pandemic – including 25,000 in the last week alone.
"Today, our focus is towards the east of the WHO European region," Kluge said in Russian at a media briefing, pointing to a surge in Omicron cases. "Over the past two weeks, cases of COVID-19 have more than doubled in six countries in this part of the region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine)."
He called on governments and health officials "to closely examine the local reasons influencing lower vaccine demand and acceptance, and devise tailored interventions to increase vaccination rates urgently, based on the context-specific evidence." Kluge also said it was "not the moment to lift measures that we know work in reducing the spread of COVID-19."
"As anticipated, the Omicron wave is moving east: 10 eastern member states have now detected this variant," he added.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
