As Assuta Ashdod Medical Center diverts ambulances and Beilinson Medical Center is opening additional COVID unit in parking structure, Professor Idit Matot of Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv says Omicron policies have "brought the country to the brink of collapse."
Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Public Security Minister Omer Barlev, and Housing Minister Ze'ev Elkin test positive for the coronavirus, as do Likud MK David Amsalem, Yesh Atid MK Moshe Tur-Paz, and Professor Ran Balicer of the Health Ministry's pandemic response team.
The mutation, known as BA.2, is first identified in China several weeks ago and is believed to have originated in India. Over 40,000 Israelis test positive for the coronavirus, among them National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata.
"If there is a lockdown, it will be like the first one, where people would not be allowed to go more than 100 m (330 ft) from their home,” Salman Zarka says at a press briefing.
Concerns over quality of healthcare rise as 5,657 medical workers self-isolate. One in three Israelis offered Pfizer's COVID pill decline taking the drug.
As number of new cases mushrooms, with patients hospitalized in serious condition for COVID doubling in a week, education minister determined to keep schools open.
Christopher Key of the Vaccine Police group, who has called for pharmacists who administer vaccines to be executed, tells followers that anyone who contracts COVID can cure it by drinking their own urine.
"Higher asymptomatic carriage rate is likely a major factor in the rapid and widespread dissemination of the variant, even among populations with high prior rates of coronavirus infection," the researchers said in a statement.
The lockdown of Anyang, home to 5.5 million people, is announced after two cases of the Omicron variant are reported.
Health Ministry reports over 185,000 active cases, with 1,445 COVID patients in hospitals, including 59 on ventilators and 13 on ECMO machines.