The death toll from the COVID pandemic in Israel crossed the 10,000 mark on Monday evening; two years after the pandemic first erupted – including some 1,600 Israelis since the onset of the Omicron wave.
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The Health Ministry on Tuesday reported 12,930 new Covid-19 cases with 753 people hospitalized in serious condition as the fifth wave of the pandemic continued to recede.
The percentage of positive tests over the previous 24-hour period was 13.55% out of 95,425 tests administered to detect the virus.
As of Monday evening, there were 120,713 active COVID cases in the country.
The reproduction rate, or R-value, continued its downward trend at 0.66, indicating that the outbreak driven by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was waning. A number below one indicates that each infection causes less than one new infection.
Meanwhile, the downward trend of Israeli seeking to get vaccinated has also continued, as just 150 people received their first vaccine dose on Monday, 321 received a second dose, 381 their third dose, and 1,271 their fourth dose. Altogether, nearly 4.5 million Israelis have received three vaccine doses, while almost 721,000 have been jabbed four times.
According to the Health Ministry, 52% of all COVID deaths in Israel were among those over age 80, and 76.6% were among those over age 70.
Meanwhile, despite recent optimism that the Omicron wave was indeed slowing down, Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash on Tuesday morning warned that "the wave is not over, and the number of new cases is still high."
He added: "The number of new infections, which is now going down, is still higher than any other wave. The overwhelming burden is still great.
"We had nearly 100,000 new cases each day, and the number of infections was nearly twice that. Despite the fact that the variant causes mild illness, and certainly for those who are vaccinated, at the end of the day you have a high number of serious cases, and it reached nearly 200 serious cases each day."
He noted, however, that "the Israeli healthcare system did not collapse; not the clinics and not the hospitals and Health Ministry."
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Meanwhile, government ministers were reportedly weighing the potential of lifting the indoor mask mandate in the coming weeks, but no final decision has been made.
Last Thursday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with health experts to discuss gradually lifting the remaining restrictions on public life by March 1.
At a Meretz faction meeting on Monday, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said he was not in a hurry to remove masks.
"I'm not eager to give up on masks," Horowitz said. "Masks are not a restriction, they will be with us for a while longer."
