The IDF Military Intelligence Directorate warned this week that the opening of the school year was bound to lead to an increase in the coronavirus infection rate.

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"There is a reasonable possibility that despite the extensive third vaccine campaign, the increase in the number of verified cases will continue to increase," it said, "which would, in turn, lead to a rise in serious cases, further burdening the healthcare system."

The task force called on the government to reassess its plans for the 2021-2022 school year based on the coronavirus situation throughout September and prepare to decrease educational activities significantly.

They further stressed that while an "artificial" increase might soon occur in the number of daily cases – due to the mass testing by parents of their children ahead of the school year – a more accurate reflection of the effects of the school year on morbidity will be known in several more weeks.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported that 526 Israelis succumbed to the coronavirus in August 2021 alone. Altogether since the outbreak of the pandemic, 7,043 Israelis have died of COVID.

Of the 145,868 Israelis the ministry screened for the virus on Tuesday, 10,947 (7.65%) tested positive. There are 83,542 active cases in the country, with 1,122 Israelis hospitalized. Of those, 217 are in critical condition and 172 on ventilators.

Israel has reported 1,066,352 cases since the epidemic began. Thus far, 5,974,921 Israelis have been partially vaccinated, 5,482,062 have received both doses, and 2,157,299 got their third jabs.

Meanwhile, the school year – which began on Wednesday – did not get off to a good start. On the first day of studies, a teacher at Shamir Elementary School in Holon tested positive for the coronavirus.

At 10 a.m., the school contacted the parents, asking them to pick up their children and self-isolate for 10 days. They will be joining the 55,390 students already in quarantine.

Based on reports, the teacher took a COVID test two days before the opening of the school year, and when he did not receive his results, he took a rapid COVID test that came back positive.

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As the rising coronavirus morbidity has parents worried over the reopening of the school year, Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton assured Tuesday that the government had formulated a thorough plan on the matter.

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"I know that some parents have concerns that it won't be easy, but we have a moral obligation to send the children back to school," Shasha-Biton told reporters.

"We have formulated a plan together with the Health Ministry, followed up on by experts and professionals, and we will not hesitate to amend it and adapt to the ever-changing reality."

More than 2 million students have begun their studies at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, having packed their lunches, masks as well as vaccine certificates or negative coronavirus test results. Shasha-Biton said the ministry's main goal for the 2021-2022 school year was to bridge the education gap created by studies disrupted due to COVID.

When asked about parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, the education minister said: "We need to look at the system and take care of all of the students. We called on the parents to vaccinate [their children]. We did what we could in order for the students to arrive at school inoculated. In the end, parents are the ones who decide what's the right thing to do."

As for the matter of unvaccinated teachers, she said it was "under legal investigation."

The Coronavirus Cabinet has mandated the so-called "green passport" vaccine certificate for teaching staff, and as of Sunday morning, only vaccinated educators, or those with a negative COVID test, will be able to enter the classroom.

According to ministry data, as of Wednesday morning, some 90,000 students were currently in self-isolation, 35,000 of those active virus carriers. Some 4,000 teachers are currently in quarantine, with 2,000 confirmed as COVID carriers.

As per coronavirus regulations, schools in cities with low morbidity rates will begin studies in classrooms and at a full schedule. However, in "red" cities – those with a high infection rate – classes with less than 70% of students inoculated will learn from home or outdoors.

Data shows that in seven to ninth grades, at least 56% of students have been at least partially vaccinated, and in 10-12 grades, 81%. Of the teaching staff, at least 87% have received at least their first dose.

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Less than a month into a COVID-19 vaccine booster drive, Israel is seeing signs of an impact on the country's high infection and severe illness rates fuelled by the fast-spreading Delta variant, officials and scientists say.

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Delta hit Israel in June, just as the country began to reap the benefits of one of the world's fastest vaccine roll-outs.

With an open economy and most curbs scrapped, Israel went from single-digit daily infections and zero deaths to around 7,500 daily cases last week, 600 people hospitalized in serious condition and more than 150 people dying in that week alone.

On July 30, it began administering a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine to people over 60, the first country to do so. On Thursday it expanded eligibility to 30-year-olds and up whose second dose was given at least five months prior, saying the age may drop further.

In the past 10 days, the pandemic is abating among the first age group, more than a million of whom have received a third vaccine dose, according to Israeli Health Ministry data and scientists interviewed by Reuters.

The rate of disease spread among vaccinated people age 60 and over began falling steadily around Aug. 13 and has dipped below 1, indicating that each infected person is transmitting the virus to fewer than one other person. A reproduction rate of less than 1 means an outbreak is subsiding.

Scientists said booster shots are having an impact on infections, but other factors are likely contributing to the decline as well.

"The numbers are still very high but what has changed is that the very high increase in the rate of infections and severe cases has diminished, as has the pace at which the pandemic is spreading," said Eran Segal, a data scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and an adviser to the government.

"This is likely due to the third booster shots, an uptake in people taking the first dose and the high number of people infected per week, possibly up to 100,000, who now have natural immunity," Segal said.

Israel appears poised to break its previous record for confirmed daily cases, according to Health Ministry data released Tuesday. Of the 157,994 people who tested for the virus Monday, 9,831 were found to have the disease. Israel confirmed its highest number of new cases, 10,118, back in January 2021. Over one million people have been infected since the beginning of the pandemic.

The infection rate stands at 6.63%. The reproduction rate, which relates to the number of people each confirmed carrier infects, is 1.19.

The country has 72,572 active cases of the virus. There are 678 people in serious condition, 123 of whom are on ventilators.

Although 925,941 people have recovered from the virus, 6,864 have died.

Among those Israelis eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, fewer than 1 million – around 978,000 – have yet to get the jab.

Infections have spiked in the Haredi community since students in the community returned to schools on Aug. 9, according to ministry data. At around 4% at the start of the new school year, the community's infection rate was comparable to that of the general population at the time. In just two weeks, that rate has nearly tripled to 11.48%, while the infection rate in the general population now stands at around 5%. The rapid increase in infections comes despite community members having been found to possess higher antibody levels than the general population officials believed might make them less susceptible to infection.

In an interview with Army Radio Tuesday, coronavirus cabinet member and Housing and Construction Minister Ze'ev Elkin said: "The increase in seriously ill patients is much slower, but this is a kind of illusion. The experts said it is clear those who got the third vaccine dose are less at risk of becoming seriously ill, but if we don't succeed in stopping the new infections –– the number of patients in serious condition will continue to climb."

Former Health Ministry Director-General Hezi Levy called lockdown "a doomsday device" in an interview with Army Radio Tuesday.

"I don't think we need to get there. I doubt it will do what we need it to do. The people are tired, and we cannot be sure people will abide by the guidelines," he said.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced the government would now offer at-home vaccinations alongside the addition of hundreds of medical workers in an effort to rein in morbidity levels.

Meanwhile, the government updated its blacklist of countries Israelis are barred from visiting, Monday, so that it now includes Bulgaria, Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey. Georgia and Spain were removed from the list.

Also on Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, potentially boosting public confidence in the shots and instantly paving the way for more universities, companies, and local governments to make vaccinations mandatory.

Hundreds of millions of Pfizer doses have been administered worldwide since the FDA approved the vaccine for emergency use in December. In going a step further and granting full approval, the FDA cited months of real-world evidence that serious side effects are extremely rare.

US President Joe Biden said that for those who hesitated to get the vaccine until it received what he dubbed the "gold standard" of FDA approval, "the moment you've been waiting for is here."

Pfizer said the US is the first country to grant full approval of its vaccine, in a process that required a 360,000-page application and rigorous inspections. Never before has the FDA has so much evidence to judge a shot's safety.

The formula, jointly developed with Germany's BioNTech, will be marketed under the brand name Comirnaty.

Moderna, whose vaccines Israel also acquired, has also applied to the FDA for full approval of its vaccine.

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