Given Israel's rising COVID cases following the government decision to lift remaining restrictions, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met on Wednesday with national COVID response coordinator Professor Salman Zarka, head of public health services in the Health Ministry Dr. Sharon Elroi-Preiss, and other government officials, including Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz.
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The meeting resulted in a vote against administering third vaccine doses to children ages five to 12 but in favor of making vaccines mandatory for medical care providers.
The team also decided to refresh recommendations that elderly Israelis and at-risk individuals continue to wear masks in public places.
Later Wednesday, the Health Ministry's pandemic coordination team was due to meet, and Zarka was slated to brief the press at 3:30 p.m.
Speaking at the Medicine 2042 conference, Zarka said "it appears that we are seeing the start of a new [COVID] wave in Israel – the BA.5 wave. We are considering a fifth vaccination."
"In Israel, we celebrated the end of the third wave, and unfortunately there was a surprise with the Delta [variant] and some of the vaccinated patients died. Between the third and fourth waves, a new government was formed. The change brought with it a new mission – to balance saving people's lives and taking a broader for of national security in terms of education, the economy, and more.
"The government decided not to instate restrictions, not call lockdowns, and allow the market to grow, despite COVID," Zarka said.
On Tuesday, 4,585 Israelis tested positive for COVID, the highest number since April 19. There were 89 patients hospitalized in serious condition.
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