A new coronavirus variant was detected in Israel this week when three Israelis returning from South Africa, Singapore and Italy tested positive for the BA4 strain of the virus, the Health Ministry said Monday.
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The BA4 strain has been spreading in South Africa recently, causing an increase in the country's infection rate.
The National Coronavirus Information and Knowledge Center said it was "monitoring the situation closely."
The BA4 and BA5 strains are a cause for concern because they are currently spreading in areas reeling from an Omicron outbreak. The BA2 variant is still considered dominant, and current data suggest that BA4 and BA5 are not mutations of BA2 but rather independent strains of the coronavirus.
The Health Ministry said that it had no further information about the BA4 sub-variant at this time.
"The nature of an epidemic is to produce new variant mutations," Dr. Daniel Kedar-Friedman of the Assuta Medical Center in Ashdod told Israel Hayom.
"The more infectious the virus creates, the more variants and sub-variants we are likely to see. Although BA4 and BA5 seem to be on the rise compared to other variants in some countries, we're not seeing a significant increase in the spread of the pandemic.
"The World Health Organization is monitoring the current variant as well as other variants in the world and therefore, at this time, it is too early to be seriously concerned."
Last week, after two years, Israelis were rid of the public directive mandating wearing face masks indoors. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz's decision following the steady decline of COVID-19 morbidity in Israel over the past few months.
This decision excludes high infection-risk venues such as hospitals, nursery homes, and planes.
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