Potentially deadly fungal infections with Candida auris are spreading rapidly in US healthcare facilities, with cases nearly doubling between 2020 and 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week.

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The number of cases rose by 44% to 476 in 2019, up from 330 in 2018, and subsequently 59% to 756 in 2020 and by an additional 95% to 1,471 in 2021, the agency's researchers reported on Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine. Also concerning was a tripling in 2021 of the number of cases that were resistant to echinocandins, the class of drugs most often recommended for treatment of the disease.

A high fever with chills that does not get better after taking antibiotics may be a sign of Candida auris infection. People who are very sick, have invasive medical devices such as mechanical ventilators, or have long or frequent hospital stays are at particular risk for the infections, the report said.

"The rapid rise and geographic spread of cases is concerning and emphasizes the need for continued surveillance, expanded lab capacity, quicker diagnostic tests, and adherence to proven infection prevention and control," study leader Dr. Meghan Lyman said in a statement.

The CDC noted that spread of the infections in 2021 may have been exacerbated as the healthcare system was hit by pandemic-related stressors, such as staff and equipment shortages.

The report did not include data from 2022, but the CDC's website shows 2,377 cases of confirmed Candida auris infections in the US last year, a sharp increase from 53 in 2016, the year in which cases were first reported in the country.

Although it was initially limited primarily to the New York City and Chicago metropolitan areas, Candida auris has now been detected in more than half of US states, with recent cases mostly reflecting local transmission of the disease, according to the report.

Other countries have also reported increased spread of the fungus, the researchers said.

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Israel has signed a deal to purchase 5 million doses of a COVID vaccine produced by the American drug manufacturer Novavax Inc.

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Novavax's two-dose, protein-based vaccine can provide an alternative to those Israelis hesitate to be vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine or cannot do so for medical reasons.

The Health Ministry said this would provide an element of "technological diversity" to the country's coronavirus strategy.

The vaccine will be given in two doses and will be subject to regulatory approval in Israel.

Based on early research data, Novavax's vaccine is effective in generating an immune response against the Omicron variant.

"We are encouraged that boosted responses against all variants were comparable to those associated with high vaccine efficacy in our Phase 3 clinical trials," said Gregory M. Glenn, Novavax's president of research and development.

The Novavax purchase comes as a subvariant of the Omicron strain has the world worried.

On Friday, Britain's Health Security Agency said that BA.2 subtype of the Omicron coronavirus variant appeared to have a substantial growth advantage over the currently predominant BA.1 type.

UKHSA said that there was an increased growth rate of BA.2 compared with BA.1 in all regions of England where there were enough cases to compare them, and that "the apparent growth advantage is currently substantial."

"We now know that BA.2 has an increased growth rate which can be seen in all regions in England," said Dr. Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor for the UKHSA.

The agency said there was no data on the severity of BA.2 compared to BA.1, but reiterated that a preliminary assessment did not find a difference in vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease between the two Omicron subtypes.

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statement issued Friday confirmed that nearly half of US states had confirmed cases of the BA.2 subvariant but that the strain was still at "low levels" in the US.

The CDC warned that the BA.2 strain was 1.5 times as contagious as the original Omicron strain.

Meanwhile, the Omicron wave in Israel showed signs of receding on Sunday, with the reproduction rate at 0.95 for the first time since the eruption of the fifth wave, according to Health Ministry data.

At Sunday's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, "We are seeing the Omicron wave start to stabilize. I am choosing my words carefully to avoid a sense that everything is over and inappropriate end-of-Omicron celebrations. At the moment, we are dealing with overcrowded hospitals and a very large number of new cases."

The Health Ministry reported that tests processed Saturday confirmed 45,258 new COVID cases. The percentage of tests that came back positive for the same 24-hours period stood at 27%.

As of Sunday morning, 1,069 COVID patients were hospitalized in serious condition nationwide, 241 of whom were on ventilators.

Nearly half a million (461,929) Israelis were defined as active or symptomatic cases, and there were 138,016 people in quarantine at home. Over the weekend, 9,900 people were vaccinated, including 2,300 children and 5,400 people who received a second booster shot.

Israel Hayom has learned that the Israel Teachers Union plans to ask that schools that still haven't received shipments of rapid antigen tests be exempted from the government's new quarantine guidelines. ITU chairwoman Yaffa Ben-David was scheduled to meet with Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton and senior Health Ministry officials at 1 p.m. Sunday.

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In other COVID news, the news site Politico reported Friday that the administration of former US President Donald Trump created a secret list while planning for COVID vaccine distribution, prioritizing certain countries over others.

According to the report, the list favored Israel and other allies such as Taiwan over low-and moderate-income countries.

The list was split into several sections, including US strategic allies, countries that helped develop the vaccine, countries with relationships with Gavi – the global vaccine alliance –  and all other countries.

Officials told Politico that the documents were passed on to the Biden administration, saying that it "does not use the previous administration's policy or the cited list to make vaccine sharing decisions."

The list was an annex to a longer document laying out the Trump administration's international approach to facing COVID, planning the distribution of the vaccines based on political preference.

"We thought that the categories themselves made sense at the time," said Paul Mango, the former deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Politico.

"The underserved countries were third on the list."

The list included an assessment of the country's ability to "absorb and distribute doses and to what degree they were experiencing outbreaks."

"We identified categories and we put weights to them, and then subject matter experts from each [agency] came in and informed those categories," one former Trump official said. "From there, we had a panel of experts score each country based on the evidence provided."

Erez Linn and i24NEWS contributed to this report

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Israel's coronavirus infection rate stands at 0.86%, according to Health Ministry data. Of the 82,454 people who tested for the virus Tuesday, 663 were found to have contracted the disease.

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There are 7,447 active cases of the virus. There are 201 people in serious condition, 120 of whom are on ventilators.

Although 1,316,201 Israelis have recovered from the virus since the outbreak of the pandemic, 8,106 have died.

On the vaccination front, 6,241,399 Israelis have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, while 5,736,255 have received two doses. Nearly 4 million Israelis – 3,967,603 – have received all three available doses of the vaccine.

A coronavirus outbreak among foreign workers has been identified in the Jordan Valley after one confirmed carrier was admitted to Baruch Podeh Medical Center in Tiberias over the weekend. So far, 170 cases have been confirmed.

Meanwhile, US health officials on Tuesday gave the final signoff to emergency use of Pfizer's kid-size COVID-19 shot, a milestone that opens a major expansion of the nation's vaccination campaign to children as young as five.

The Food and Drug Administration already authorized the shots for children ages 5 to 11 – doses just a third of the amount given to teens and adults, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention formally recommends who should receive FDA-cleared vaccines.

The announcement by CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky came just hours after an advisory panel unanimously decided Pfizer's shots should be made available to the 28 million youngsters in that age group.

The decision marks the first opportunity for Americans under 12 to get the powerful protection of any COVID-19 vaccine.

"As a mom, I encourage parents with questions to talk to their pediatrician, school nurse, or local pharmacist to learn more about the vaccine and the importance of getting their children vaccinated," Walensky said Tuesday night, in a statement.

In remarks earlier in the day, she said while the risk of severe disease and death is lower in young children than adults, it is real – and that COVID-19 has had a profound social, mental health, and educational impact on youngsters, including widening disparities in learning.

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The highly contagious Delta variant continued to subside in Israel on Tuesday, according to a report by the Health Ministry. Of the 91,496 Israelis it screened for the virus on the day, 727 (0.85%) tested positive. The reproduction rate is 0.73. 

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There are currently 10,914 active cases in the country with 342 Israelis hospitalized. The number of seriously ill patients decreased and now stands at 237. Of those, 79% are unvaccinated. 

Israel has reported 1,325,267 cases, including 8,063 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic. Thus far, 3,924,163 Israelis have been vaccinated three times, 5,720,398 have received two jabs and 6,224,851 have gotten one dose. 

Nevertheless, the ministry said that despite the general decrease in morbidity in the country, one city experienced a worrisome outbreak. According to data, there was a spike in morbidity in 40 educational institutions in Rehovot, central Israel, where students and educational staff were found to be infected.  

The city is designated as "red" under the government's "stoplight" ranking. The ministry has increased vaccination efforts in Rehovot in order to curb the infection. If successful, it will use it as a "model for tackling future outbreaks between waves," the ministry said. 

Also on Tuesday, the US Food and Drug Administration endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer's vaccine shots for 5-11-year-olds.

An FDA panel voted unanimously, with one abstention, that the vaccine's benefits in preventing COVID in that age group outweigh any potential risks. That includes questions about a heart-related side effect that's been very rare in teens and young adults despite their use of a much higher vaccine dose.

While children are far less likely than older people to get severe COVID, ultimately many panelists decided it's important to give parents the choice to protect their youngsters – especially those at high risk of illness or who live in places where other precautions, like masks in schools, aren't being used.

"This is an age group that deserves and should have the same opportunity to be vaccinated as every other age," said panel member Dr. Amanda Cohn of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA isn't bound by the panel's recommendation and is expected to make its own decision within days. If the FDA concurs, there's still another step: Next week, the CDC will have to decide whether to recommend the shots and which youngsters should get them.

Full-strength shots made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are already recommended for everyone 12 and older but pediatricians and many parents are clamoring for protection for younger children.

Pfizer studied 2,268 elementary schoolchildren given two shots three weeks apart of either a placebo or the kid dose. Vaccinated youngsters developed levels of virus-fighting antibodies just as strong as teens and young adults who got the full-strength shots. More importantly, the vaccine proved nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infection – based on 16 cases of COVID-19 among kids given dummy shots compared to just three who got vaccinated.

The kid dosage also proved safe, with similar or fewer temporary side effects – such as sore arms, fever, or achiness – that teens experience. At FDA's request, Pfizer more recently enrolled another 2,300 youngsters into the study, and preliminary safety data has shown no red flags.

But that study isn't large enough to detect any extremely rare side effects, such as the heart inflammation that occasionally occurs after the second full-strength dose, mostly in young men and teen boys. The panel spent hours discussing if younger children, given a smaller dose, might face that side effect, too.

Statistical models developed by FDA scientists showed that in most scenarios of the continuing pandemic, the vaccine would prevent far more COVID-19 hospitalizations in this age group than would potentially be caused by that rare heart problem.

FDA's models suggested the vaccine could prevent 200-250 hospitalizations for every one million youngsters vaccinated – assuming that virus spread remained high, something that is hard to predict. FDA scientists also said younger kids likely won't have as much risk of heart inflammation as teens but if they did, it might cause about 58 hospitalizations per million vaccinations.

Moderna vaccine manufacturer also is studying its vaccine in young children, and Pfizer has additional studies underway in those younger than 5.

In Israel, Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash told Army Radio after the FDA ruling, he estimated the country will begin vaccinating children "in a few weeks." 

He said Israel does not have the doses required for the campaign yet but assured that the ministry would do its utmost "to make the vaccines accessible to all children so that there will be no delay in the immunization. We need to be prepared for another wave – the more people get vaccinated, the less severe the morbidity will be. Getting infected with the coronavirus can lead to more severe side effects than getting vaccinated."

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is scheduled to meet with senior health officials on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the FDA ruling. The final decision, however, will be made on Nov. 4 during a meeting with the ministry's Advisory Committee on Infectious Diseases and Immunizations. 

In any case, pediatricians in Israel have already welcomed the announcement. 

"I am happy about the decision of the FDA advisory committee, this is a step that will open the door to vaccinating children, and we will discuss this in Israel as well," President of the Israeli Pediatric Association Professor Zachi Grossman said.

"We listened to what was said in the FDA yesterday [Tuesday] and we will have the data and all this will be discussed this coming Thursday. I will recommend proceeding with the [children's] vaccinations and I am sure that most of the members will do the same."

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, commander of the IDF Home Front Command Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, and other high-ranking military officials visited the headquarters of the Home Front Command's Alon Epidemiological Investigations Task Force headquarters on Tuesday.

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Bennett received an overview of the task force's activities and its program for outreach to local authorities, as well as its efforts to cut off chains of infection.

"Israel is fighting a war against the Delta variant, which is pummeling the entire world. As in every war, the defense establishment, the IDF, its commander and soldiers, are at the forefront – with health officials, in this case – and are doing outstanding work on all fronts: vaccinations, testing, outreach to citizens, and contact tracing," Bennett said.

"I would like to express appreciation for the IDF's devoted and professional work. 90% of COVID patients in serious condition are over 50. That means that nine out of every 10 seriously ill patients are over 50. So I'm asking all Israelis over age 50 to take extra precautions in the next few weeks. Anyone over 60 who still hasn't received a third vaccination, should," the prime minister said.

"The vaccination drive is a great success – already, over 600,000 Israelis over 60 have gotten a booster shot. That's nearly 50% within a few days. Israel is the only country in the world that is allowing its older population to receive booster shots. The vaccines are safe and effective. If you haven't gotten one, go do it now. It will protect your lives," he continued.

"With God's help, all of us together will continue to fight to stop the Delta pandemic. We're working very intensely to start flattening the curve so we can overcome the pandemic with minimal harm and minimal restrictions," Bennett concluded.

Gantz said, "We will help the healthcare system in any way possible when it comes to the national mission before us. We call on anyone who hasn't been vaccinated to take personal responsibility and do so."

Meanwhile, the number of new confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose sharply Monday, along with the percentage of tests coming back positive, as the government continues to struggle to contain the ongoing outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant that started in late June.

According to data released by the Health Ministry Tuesday morning, a total of 6,275 new cases of the coronavirus were diagnosed across Israel on Monday, up from 3,421 a day earlier.

Of the 6,275 new cases reported Monday, 44.3% were unvaccinated, compared to 54% who were fully vaccinated, and 1.7% who had received one dose of the vaccine.

The percentage of tests coming back positive also rose, rising from 3.9% on Sunday to 4.84% Monday.

There are now 35,466 known active cases of the virus in Israel. A total of 648 patients are hospitalized with COVID.

Of those, 394 are in serious condition, up from 379 on Monday. That is the highest number since March 30th.

There are 87 patients in critical condition, including 64 on respirators.

Among seriously ill patients, 36% are not vaccinated, compared to 61% who are fully vaccinated and 3% who received one dose of the vaccine.

Despite introducing a third vaccine dose to older adults and approving tighter restrictions for the general public, the daily numbers continue to rise, which prompted the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to raise its COVID-19 travel alert level for Israel to the highest risk warning – level four.

The CDC also warned against travel to France, Thailand, Iceland and several other countries because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases in those nations.

In July, the CDC had raised concerns about Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, lifting its travel health notice by two levels to "Level 3: High."

The CDC also hiked alert levels to "Level 3: High" for Austria, Croatia, El Salvador, Azerbaijan, Guam, Kenya and Jamaica. The CDC says unvaccinated travelers should avoid nonessential travel to those countries.

Health Ministry Director-General Prof Nachman Ash said on Monday that the government was doing everything possible to avoid a fourth lockdown.

Consequently, the Israel Police on Tuesday launched a comprehensive enforcement campaign to try stemming the tide of the fourth wave.

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According to the police, the operation, which will consist of thousands of police officers, is a top priority, will come at the expense of other routine law enforcement duties, and will consist of three central elements:  enforcing home isolations, the so-called "Green Pass," and mask-wearing.

According to high-ranking police officials, Bennett said at the most recent meeting of the coronavirus cabinet that the Delta variant was four times more infectious than the original variant.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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For the first time since the start of the current COVID wave in Israel, the number of new confirmed COVID cases in a single day exceeded 2,000, with 2,112 new cases identified in the 92,770 tests processed Monday, the Health Ministry reported Tuesday morning.

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This puts the percentage of positive tests for Monday at 2.3%, which the ministry said indicates a continued rise in the number of confirmed positives.

At the time of the ministry's morning briefing, 33,322 tests had been processed since midnight between Monday and Tuesday, resulting in 544 more confirmed cases, with the percentage of positive tests at 1.66%.

The ministry also reported that as of Tuesday morning, there were 13,147 active of symptomatic COVID cases in Israel, with 238 COVID patients hospitalized. The hospitalized patients included 138 listed in serious condition, of whom 26 were on ventilators.

Since the pandemic reached Israel in early 2020, 6,461 Israelis have died of the virus.

The Coronavirus Knowledge and Information Center pointed to the fact that the virus reproduction rate continued to rise, indicating that the number of confirmed COVID cases and symptomatic cases in the country could double within the next seven to 10 days.

Interestingly, 203 of the new cases identified on Monday were people who had recently returned from abroad, 10 of whom had visited countries designated "red" due to high rates of COVID infection. Another 77 had returned from countries for which Israel has issued a serious travel warning due to the COVID situation there, and 116 from other countries. Forty of the Israelis who tested positive had been in Greece, 17 in the US, 14 in Bulgaria, and 11 in the Republic of Georgia.

Meanwhile, the last two days have seen an uptick in vaccinations, with the number of adults and teens over 12 receiving their first vaccine doses rising from a daily average of 1,100-1,600 to a daily average of 3,500-4,000 since Sunday. The percentage of children age 12-16 who have been vaccinated stood at 29.7%.

The IDF Home Front Command warned about lengthy wait times for test results due to overburdened laboratories. The Home Front Command also said that some 2,000 contact tracers were needed to meet the needs of the latest outbreak. There are currently some 1,200 contact tracers working in Israel.

On Tuesday morning, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz addressed the current outbreak, saying "Israel will be prepared with a stock of vaccines for everyone," should there be a need to administer booster shots of the vaccines.

"The numbers are going up and unfortunately, they can be expected to keep going up. We can't be apathetic to the issue, so we need to follow regulations carefully so we don't find ourselves in a serious situation," Horowitz said at a press briefing during a visit to the COVID unit at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva.

"Our battle now in the Health Ministry is to make sure all the citizens of Israel receive the resources they need from the government. I am in touch with the Treasury so that the cabinet will be presented with a budget that significantly strengthens the healthcare system," he added.

Israel's increasing COVID numbers have not escaped the notice of the US government. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a travel warning for "Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank" designating these areas light red or "High."

The CDC recommends that US citizens who are unvaccinated should "avoid nonessential travel to Israel."

"Travelers should follow recommendations or requirements in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, including wearing a mask and staying six feet apart from others," the CDC warning stated.

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To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, which this year begins on the eve of April 7, International March of the Living, together with the Maimonides Institute for Ethics and the Holocaust, the Miller Center at Rutgers University, the USC Shoah Foundation and Teva Pharmaceuticals, will be holding hold an online symposium on "Medicine and Morality: Lessons from the Holocaust and COVID-19."

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The program, scheduled to air at 7 p.m. EST, will include testimony from survivors who were both persecuted by Nazi doctors as well as saved by medical professionals during the Holocaust. It will also feature world renowned medical professionals and researchers who will discuss medical resistance during the Holocaust, the legacy of Nazi medicine and what the Holocaust can teach us about the ethics of care.

During the symposium, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the US president, will receive the "Moral Courage in Medicine" award for his work in combatting COVID-19, his long history of leading the battle against infectious diseases, and his dedication to the health and wellbeing of humankind.

The event will also include a moving performance of "Schindler's List" by Grammy Award winner and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador of Music, Miri Ben-Ari, herself the descendant of Holocaust survivors.

Participating organizations include the World Medical Association, the Department of Education of the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics, the Israeli Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Association, the Indian Medical Association, the South African Medical Association and many others.

Vice-Chairman of the International March of the Living, Professor David Machlis, and Founding Director of the Maimonides Institute for Ethics and the Holocaust, Dr. Stacy Gallin, noted that this year in particular, it was appropriate to honor the activities and heroism of the medical community during the Holocaust by inviting practicing medical professionals to participate in all March of the Living events.

"We believe that hundreds of medical staff and medical students will tune in to watch a program that will be both informative and poignant," Machlis said.

Anyone interested in watching the symposium can register here.

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Israel's infection rate continues to decline, according to Health Ministry data released Friday, and now stands at 3.1%, as 2,509 of the 82,657 people who tested for the coronavirus were found to be carrying COVID-19.

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Israel currently has 35,576 active cases of the virus. The number of people who are seriously ill, 613, is also on the decline. Of those in serious condition, 212 are on ventilators.

While 773,689 people have recovered from the coronavirus, 5,975 have died.

So far, 5,110,698 Israelis have received at least one dose of Pfizer's corona vaccine, while 4,068,374 have received both doses.

Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control said it was safe to vaccinate people who have recovered from the coronavirus and that a series of studies had found one dose of a coronavirus vaccine significantly improved their protection from existing variants of the disease.

According to preliminary reports, individuals who recovered from the virus but continue to suffer from symptoms of "long COVID-19" report a significant improvement in their condition upon receiving a dose of the vaccine.

While researchers are aware a coronavirus dose has been shown to ease long COVID-19 symptoms, they say it is too early to tell whether the vaccines currently in use could help with or cure the disease.

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A Health Ministry official has confirmed to Israel Hayom that Jerusalem was in talks with UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, along with multinational firm Johnson and Johnson and France's Sanofi, to bring even more vaccines to Israel. GSK has two coronavirus vaccines in development, although they are in less advanced stages than the vaccines Israel has already signed on to procure from Moderna and Pfizer.

One of GSK's vaccines, now entering the third stage of research, is based on a unique technology that uses plant cells to create a protein used for the vaccine.

The second vaccine is the result of collaboration with Sanofi and is expected to reach the third phase of research by the end of the year. The firms are set to seek approval for this vaccine in the first half of 2021.

Meanwhile, following reports of disappointing efficacy data for Swedish-British biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine, a Health Ministry official said, "The methodology of the research is reasonable. They did super thorough work in a series of research studies. True, some things seem off in the research, but I assume this will be made clear later on, and it doesn't seem like it will have repercussions for the outcome."

Israel has signed on to purchase 10 million units of AstraZeneca's vaccine.

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Also on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel was "on its way out of the pandemic."

Speaking on a tour of a logistical center in the central Israeli city of Shoham set to receive, store and transport the coronavirus vaccines once they arrive in Israel, Netanyahu said, "It will take a few months, and we need the citizens' cooperation. Millions of vaccines are on the way. Every citizen will be able to get vaccinated more than once. There is no logistical limitation on their preservation, freezing, and distribution. This is very important news ahead of the end of the pandemic in the State of Israel," he stressed.

"We came to see in person the ability to preserve the vaccines at low temperatures, thaw them, and bring them to Israel's citizens. I am impressed by the world-class factory, a logistic center that is properly run and that can receive the millions of vaccines we are bringing to Israel together," he said.

Also in attendance on the tour were Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Health Ministry chief Hezi Levy.

Medical workers and people over 60 are poised to become the first Israelis to have access to a coronavirus vaccine, following a meeting of Levy's advisory team ahead of the arrival of the first batch of vaccines in December.

In a press conference following a meeting of the Health Ministry's advisory team on Wednesday, Health Ministry chief Hezi Levy emphasized there would be no mandatory vaccination, but said there was a desire among officials to encourage people to get vaccinated.

He said, "The first batch of vaccines is likely to arrive at the end of December, but the bulk of the shipment will be concentrated mainly in the first quarters of 2021."

According to the model for prioritizing populations for vaccination against the coronavirus proposed by the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first population set to be vaccinated are medical workers, with an emphasis on those at high risk of contracting and spreading the disease.

In the second stage of immunization, to go into effect once 10% of the vaccines have arrived in the country, Israelis aged 60 and up will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

In a later sub-stage of this second stage, younger Israelis with pre-existing conditions, among them cancer patients, diabetics, the obese, those suffering from hepatitis, and organ recipients will have access to the vaccine. At this stage, medical workers involved in administering the vaccine and teaching staff will be given access to the vaccine.

In the third stage, set to commence once between 21%-50% of the vaccines have arrived in the country, remaining teaching staff and essential workers from the health and education sectors will be eligible for vaccination.

In the next stage, pregnant woman will be able to receive the vaccine. And in the fifth and final stage, the vaccine will be made available to the general population.

The WHO has noted that every country should set its own priorities according to the availability of vaccines and the intensity of the virus.

Meanwhile, 1,069 of the 60,463 people who were tested on Wednesday were found to be carrying the virus, for an infection rate of 1.8%. This was the first time since Oct. 21, when 1,146 tested positive, that over a thousand new cases were recorded. The infection rate has not gone past 2% since Sunday when it stood at 2.2%.

Since the start of the pandemic, 332,317 Israelis have contracted the coronavirus, of them, 9,422 cases are still active. There are 282 people in serious condition, of them, 122 are on ventilators. So far, 2,826 people have died.

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On Wednesday night, the so-called "coronavirus cabinet" approved a pilot that will see 15 shopping malls opened across the country by Dec. 6. For over a week, the malls will be supervised by Health Ministry officials after which the government will decide whether to open up the remaining malls. The cabinet also authorized four museums to open, and will carry out a lottery for another three museums that will also be allowed to open. Reservations for admittance to the museums will need to be made in advance.

The Palestinian Authority has confirmed that talks with Israel on the transfer of medical equipment to Ramallah and even the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in an effort to contend with the spike in morbidity from the coronavirus are underway. According to senior officials in the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israel will transfer hundreds of ventilators, and lab equipment, corona testing kits, medicines, and sterile and sanitary equipment for medical staff.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday ordered security officials to look into a possible immediate closure of the border crossings into the Palestinian territories to prevent infections from slipping through the border into Israel. Over the past 24 hours, 9 people have died and 1,720 have been infected with the coronavirus in the West Bank and Gaza.

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