US health officials say 2021 is shaping up to be even deadlier than last year.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

It's too early to say for sure, since all the death reports for November and December won't be in for many weeks. But based on available information, it seems likely 2021 will surpass last year's record number of deaths by at least 15,000, said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's death statistics.

Last year was the most lethal in US history, due largely to the COVID-19 pandemic. A CDC report being released Wednesday shows 2020 was actually even worse than the agency previously reported.

The report presents a final tally for last year of about 3.384 million US deaths, about 25,000 more than a provisional count released earlier this year. Such jumps between provisional and final numbers are common, but 2020's difference was higher than usual because of a lag in death records from some states that switched to new electronic reporting systems, Anderson said.

The CDC this week also revised its estimate of life expectancy for 2020. Life expectancy at birth that year was 77 years, a decrease of 1.8 years from 2019. The agency previously estimated the decline at 1.5 years.

Anderson said it's likely that the nation will see more than 3.4 million deaths in 2021. Other experts said they think deaths for the year will end up either about the same as in 2020, or higher.

"It's really sad," said Ali Mokdad, a mortality statistics expert at the University of Washington.

A large reason is COVID-19, which hit the US hard around March 2020 and became the nation's No. 3 cause of death, behind heart disease and cancer.

Last year, COVID-19 was the underlying cause in about 351,000 deaths. This year, the number is already at 356,000, and the final tally could hit 370,000, Anderson said.

Experts also think the 2021 numbers will be affected by a drug overdose epidemic that is expected to – for the first time – surpass 100,000 deaths in a calendar year.

An increase in annual deaths is not unusual. The annual count rose by nearly 16,000 from 2018 to 2019 – before COVID-19 appeared.

But the coronavirus clearly had an impact. The nation had the smallest population gain rate in history between July 2020 and July 2021, primarily because of the COVID-19 deaths, said Kenneth Johnson, a University of New Hampshire researcher.

Officials had hoped COVID-19 vaccines would slash the death count. But vaccinations became available gradually this year, with only 7 million fully vaccinated at the end of January and 63 million at the end of March.

Since then, many Americans have chosen not to get vaccinated. The CDC says 204 million Americans are fully vaccinated – or about 65% of the US population that are age five and older and eligible for shots.

Indeed, that's a big part of why COVID-19 deaths could climb despite the availability of effective vaccines, Mokdad said. The appearance of new, more transmissible variants of the coronavirus only made the problem worse, he added.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post COVID causes sharpest drop in US life expectancy since WWII appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The global death toll from COVID-19 topped 5 million on Monday, less than two years into a crisis that has not only devastated poor countries but also humbled wealthy ones with first-rate health care systems.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Together, the United States, the European Union, Britain and Brazil – all upper-middle- or high-income countries – account for one-eighth of the world's population but nearly half of all reported deaths. The US alone has recorded over 766,000 lives lost, more than any other nation.

"This is a defining moment in our lifetime," said Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease specialist at the Yale School of Public Health. "What do we have to do to protect ourselves so we don't get to another 5 million?"

The death toll, as tallied by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the populations of Los Angeles and San Francisco combined. It rivals the number of people killed in battles among nations since 1950, according to estimates from the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Globally, COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and stroke.

The staggering figure is almost certainly an undercount because of limited testing and people dying at home without medical attention, especially in poor parts of the world, such as India.

Hot spots have shifted over the 22 months since the outbreak began, turning different places on the world map red. Now, the virus is pummeling Russia, Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe. In the 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday alone, COVID killed 1,160 Russians, according to official figures. In eastern Europe, misinformation and distrust in government have hobbled vaccination efforts. In Ukraine, only 17% of the adult population is fully vaccinated; in Armenia, only 7%.

"What's uniquely different about this pandemic is it hit hardest the high-resource countries," said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP, a global health center at Columbia University. "That's the irony of COVID-19."

Wealthier nations with longer life expectancies have larger proportions of older people, cancer survivors and nursing home residents, all of whom are especially vulnerable to COVID-19, El-Sadr noted. Poorer countries tend to have larger shares of children, teens and young adults, who are less likely to fall seriously ill from the coronavirus.

India, despite its terrifying delta surge that peaked in early May, now has a much lower reported daily death rate than wealthier Russia, the US or Britain, though there is uncertainty around its figures.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The seeming disconnect between wealth and health is a paradox that disease experts will be pondering for years. But the pattern that is seen on the grand scale, when nations are compared, is different when examined at closer range. Within each wealthy country, when deaths and infections are mapped, poorer neighborhoods are hit hardest.

In the US, for example, COVID-19 has taken an outsize toll on Black and Hispanic people, who are more likely than white people to live in poverty and have less access to health care.

"When we get out our microscopes, we see that within countries, the most vulnerable have suffered most," Ko said.

Wealth has also played a role in the global vaccination drive, with rich countries accused of locking up supplies. The US and others are already dispensing booster shots at a time when millions across Africa haven't received a single dose, though the rich countries are also shipping hundreds of millions of shots to the rest of the world.

Africa remains the world's least vaccinated region, with just 5% of the population of 1.3 billion people fully covered.

"This devastating milestone reminds us that we are failing much of the world," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a written statement. "This is a global shame."

Meanwhile, the battle to pin down the source of the virus continues to cast a pall over relations between the US and China. On Friday, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence published an updated version of a declassified assessment of the source of the COVID virus, saying that it was apparently unlikely that the riddle would ever be solved and that it was as likely to have been developed in a laboratory setting as occurring naturally.

On Sunday, spokesman for China's foreign minister, Wang Wenbin dismissed the assessment as "lies."

"A lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie", adding that US intelligence services "have a reputation for fraud and deception."

"The tracing of the origins of the novel coronavirus is a serious and complex issue that should and can only be researched through the cooperation of global scientists," Wenbin said.

The post Worldwide COVID death toll tops 5 million in under 2 years appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The Delta wave continues to subside, according to Health Ministry data. Of the 60,230 Israelis that were tested for the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, 3,247 (5.44%) tested positive. The reproduction rate, which dropped below 1 on Wednesday (0.95), declined further by Thursday and now stands at 0.83. A reproduction rate of less than 1 means an outbreak is subsiding.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

There are currently 84,505 active cases in the country, with 1,114 Israelis hospitalized. Of those, 227 are in critical condition, and 160 are on ventilators.

Data shows that 144,454 students are currently in self-isolation, as are 3,757 members of the teaching staff, of whom 2,279 carry the virus. Pupils from as many as 100 cities ─ including Eilat, Ashdod, Safed, Lod, Tiberias, Bat Yam, Ramla and Bnei Brak ─ will continue their studies via Zoom as these have been designated by the government as "red" cities due to high morbidity rates.

The ministry also reported long lines at drive-through coronavirus testing sites throughout Rosh Hashanah. Many complained they had to wait for three hours in line and ran out of gas and water.

Since the launch of the booster campaign, 2,690,387 Israelis have received their first jabs. Altogether, 6,024,339 have been fully vaccinated, and 5,519,095 received their first doses.

Nevertheless, despite showing signs of abating, the Delta wave continued to wreak havoc over the festivities. It claimed the lives of 50 Israelis over the two-day holiday. Fourteen patients died on the first day, Monday, and another 26 on Tuesday. Fifty-six Israelis have died of COVID since the beginning of the week.

Among the deceased over Rosh Hashanah was a 30-year-old unvaccinated woman who had given birth to a baby a week prior. After the birth, she was hospitalized at the coronavirus ward of the Emek Medical Center in Afula. Her condition deteriorated on Tuesday, after which she was transferred to the coronavirus intensive care unit Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, where she was on a ventilator. Her condition continued to deteriorate, and despite efforts on behalf of doctors to save her, she succumbed to the virus.

Another 28-year-old unvaccinated woman, who had given birth to a baby via C-Section in recent days, is hospitalized at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera. According to the hospital, she was put on a ventilator and her condition is serious, but stable. The baby is in good condition, currently hospitalized at the medical center as well.

According to data, 25 pregnant woman are hospitalized due to COVID in hospitals across the country. Another 26 hospitalized patients are mothers who had recently given birth. Of the latter, 65% had not been vaccinated.

Israel has reported 1,142,371 cases, including 7,279 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization doubled down Tuesday on an earlier appeal for a moratorium on boosters that has largely been ignored as rich countries with large supplies of vaccines continue to offer citizens booster shots and poorer countries struggle to lay hands even on first doses.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said he was "appalled" after hearing comments from a top association of pharmaceutical manufacturers that vaccine supplies are high enough to allow for both booster shots for people in well-supplied countries and first jabs in poorer countries that face shortages. He said that's already been the case.

"I will not stay silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world's poor should be satisfied with leftovers," he told a news conference. "Because manufacturers have prioritized or been legally obliged to fulfill bilateral deals with rich countries willing to pay top dollar, low-income countries have been deprived of the tools to protect their people."

Tedros had previously called for a moratorium on boosters through the end of September. But wealthy countries – including Britain, Denmark, France, Greece, Germany, and Spain – have begun or are considering plans to offer third shots of two-dose vaccines to their vulnerable people such as the elderly or those with compromised immune systems.

Israel has been providing third doses to a wide swath of people who already received a full two-dose regimen months earlier, and has even started mulling about providing a fourth jab. And last month, United States health officials recommended that all Americans get boosters to shore up their protection amid evidence that the vaccines' effectiveness is falling. WHO officials insist the scientific justification for boosters remains unclear.

Tedros acknowledged that third doses might be necessary for at-risk groups, but said: "We do not want to see widespread use of boosters for healthy people who are fully vaccinated."

Responding to the WHO calls on booster shots, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the US has donated and shared about 140 million doses with over 90 countries, "more than all other countries combined."

She added: "From Senegal to South Africa to India, we've made significant investments in boosting global productions of COVID vaccines. At the same time, the President and this administration has a responsibility to do everything we can to protect people in the United States."

US health officials are continuing to assess the science and utility of boosters, and there are growing indications that the US may miss the Biden administration's Sept. 20 target date for a wide rollout of extra shots for vaccinated people.

The WHO chief said he received a message of "clear support" from health ministers at a meeting of the influential Group of 20 countries this week for a commitment to help hit a WHO target that all countries vaccinate at least 40% of their people by year's end.

"A month ago, I called for a global moratorium on booster doses, at least until the end of September to prioritize vaccinating the most at risk people around the world who are yet to receive their first dose," Tedros said. "There has been little change in the global situation since then."

"So today, I'm calling for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of the year to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40% of its population," he said.

The WHO says 5.5 billion coronavirus vaccine doses have been administered so far, but 80% of those have been to upper- and middle-income countries. Rich countries have also offered to donate 1 billion doses to other countries, but fewer than 15% of those doses have "materialized," Tedros said.

He noted that manufacturers have pledged to prioritize the UN-backed COVAX program, which aims to get vaccines to the neediest people in the world – no matter how wealthy the country.

"We don't want any more promises. We just want the vaccines," the WHO chief said.

Earlier Wednesday, COVAX managers again scaled back their target to ship doses this year, projecting about 1.4 billion doses will be available through the program by year-end – down from about 1.8 billion previously. They had originally hoped to ship 2 billion doses this year.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which co-runs the program, said COVAX has faced setbacks including export restrictions from hard-hit India – a key producer of vaccines – as well as regulatory hurdles for some vaccine candidates and manufacturing troubles elsewhere. But it also said deliveries are ramping up strongly, and another 1.1 billion doses are expected to be available by year-end through the program, up from 330 million so far. Most of those doses have gone to or are destined for poorer countries.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations said Tuesday that about 1.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses are now being produced every month, and cited projections that a total of 12 billion will have been produced by year-end.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, a top adviser to Tedros, acknowledged that "some countries may be going ahead with decisions" to widely administer boosters, but that the WHO call for a moratorium "makes a real difference." He said some countries – which he did not identify – have approached the WHO about whether booster policies could be delayed.

But admittedly, the WHO's first call for a moratorium through September has not fixed the gaping imbalance in access to vaccines.

"Our role is to make sure that we put forward the strongest possible arguments and way out of this pandemic – and the way out of that is a moratorium and to extend it," Aylward said. "Because since the last time we called for it, the equity gap has gotten greater, the amount of vaccine available to low-income countries has gone down."

In the meantime, The European Medicines Agency has added Guillain-Barre syndrome – an extremely rare nerve-damaging disorder – onto its list of possible side-effects of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

The medicines regulator said a causal relationship between GBS and the AstraZeneca shot, known as Vaxzevria, was a "at least a reasonable possibility" after 833 cases of GBS were reported out of 592 million doses of the vaccine given worldwide by July 31.

The EMA categorized the side-effect as "very rare", the lowest frequency of side-effect category it has, and has emphasized that the benefits of the shot outweigh the risks. The US Food and Drug Administration has added a warning over Guillain-Barre syndrome as a possible side-effect of Johnson & Johnson's shot. Both vaccines use viral vector technology, and have also been associated with rare blood clots.

The EMA also tagged some other less severe side-effects to vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, Moderna as well as AstraZeneca's shot.

The post WHO doubles down on COVID boosters moratorium appeal appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The number of vaccinated COVID-19 patients in Israel listed in serious condition is dropping, but the country is still seeing serious cases rise among the unvaccinated, a new report by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem published Tuesday reveals.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The researchers who authored the report are the same group who advise the ministers in the Corona cabinet, and who predicted the current fourth COVID wave Israel is now battling.

The report said that the current rise in serious COVID cases could lead to a rate of 150-250 deaths per week by the end of August, which could mean 500-1,000 deaths in September alone (Israel's overall deaths in the pandemic is just above 6,000).

Meanwhile, if the current downward trend of COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition continues, the report said, Israel's medical centers would see the current wave peak at fewer than 2,000 hospitalized patients at once, and possibly fewer than 1,200.

The experts recommended that the government expand its vaccination campaign, particularly in sectors with low vaccination rates.

The report comes as Israel is seeing the largest number of new cases confirmed per day since February of this year. On Tuesday morning, the Health Ministry reported that tests in the latest 24-hour period had confirmed 8,646 new cases, with 6.2% of the 136,860 tests process coming back positive.

Forty-two percent of the newly confirmed cases were schoolchildren or school staff, with 3,691 students and teachers testing positive for COVID in the same 24-hour period.

On Tuesday, there were 55,323 confirmed active or symptomatic COVID cases nationwide, and a total of 926 COVID patients hospitalized. Of the hospitalized patients, 559 were listed in serious condition, the highest number since March 2021, and 89 were on ventilators.

Israel is pressing on with its vaccination campaign, with an emphasis on booster shots for older citizens. On Monday, over 1 million people had received a COVID booster.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, "We've now reached a million citizens who were responsible for themselves and their surroundings and received a third vaccination. This is a wonderful number and a great achievement, but there's a lot of work ahead of us. Hundreds of thousands of people understand that our decision to give the third shot is necessary.

"The citizens of Israel are the first in the world to receive a third vaccination, it's not something to be taken for granted. This is the only way we will protect public health and people's livelihoods. Anyone who still hasn't been vaccinated – go get vaccinated now," Bennett said.

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said, "the vaccine is the best way we have of fighting the Delta variant, protecting people's health, the economy, and daily life in Israel. We took care to ensure we have enough vaccines for everyone. It's time to use them."

Health authorities also continue to conduct serological tests, which check the presence of COVID antibodies but not the virus itself and help determine who has developed immunity, either through exposure or through vaccination. A total of 27,227 serological tests have been conducted in the Haredi sector, with 14.6% coming back positive.

Meanwhile, according to the "traffic light" plan that grades cities and towns based on their levels of COVID cases and vaccination, 75% of the population is living in communities graded either red or orange. These include large cities like Rishon Lezion, Beersheba, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Petah Tikva.

On Monday, police handed out 2,266 fines to people for not wearing masks, 97 for violations of the Green Pass program, and 67 to individuals caught violating mandatory quarantine.

Israel's total COVID death toll since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 stood at 6,694 after an additional 13 patients succumbed to the virus on Monday. Since Sunday, 32 COVID patients in Israel have died.

The post Experts warn COVID deaths could reach 250 per week in September appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

One person succumbs to the coronavirus every two minutes in Iran, state TV said Monday, as the Middle East's worst-hit nation reported a new daily record of 588 COVID deaths.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

With authorities complaining of poor social distancing, state media said hospitals in several cities had run out of beds for new patients. Some social media users have criticized the Islamic republic of slow vaccination rates, with only about 4% of the 83 million population fully vaccinated.

Total deaths reached 94,603, the ministry said, with 40,909 testing positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.

"Every two seconds one person gets infected with COVID in Iran and almost every two minutes one person dies from the coronavirus," state TV said, adding that most of Iran's 31 provinces were declared as high morbidity zones.

In January, Iran's top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei banned the import of US- and British-made vaccines, saying they were unreliable and may even increase the spread of the virus.

Newly-sworn in President Ebrahim Raisi, who received his first dose of a homegrown COVID vaccine – named COVIran Barekat – publicly on Sunday, has urged officials to speed up vaccinations and to use "all means necessary" for curbing the pandemic, state media reported.

Trying to speed up vaccinations using imported doses as well as its COVIran Barekat shot, Iran is also participating in the COVAX scheme, run by the GAVI alliance and the World Health Organization, that aims to secure fair access for poorer countries.

Iran has blamed US sanctions for hampering purchases and deliveries of vaccines from other nations.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Iran's COVID rate means 'death every 2 minutes' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

A third round of COVID vaccinations for the elderly is "vital" to avoid more stringent restrictions on the population than those already in place, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Wednesday as he inaugurated a new Clalit Health Services vaccination center at Cinema City in Jerusalem.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"Our goal is to keep Israel open, but we will not allow ourselves to reach a situation in which hospitals, heaven forbid, might be forced to say, 'We don't have room.' That can't happen in Israel," Bennett said.

"In order to avoid much harsher restrictions, we'll wear masks, we'll maintain social distancing. It's up to us," the prime minister added.

"There are countries were there aren't enough vaccines for the population, whose people are hungry for them, and here the government is investing billions to make vaccines available everywhere in Israel. And still there are a million Israelis who simply refuse to be vaccinated. There are over 600,000 young people under age 30 who haven't been vaccinated," Bennett said.

On Tuesday, after a four-hour discussion, the Corona cabinet decided to reinstate the Green Pass regulations for events in which fewer than 100 are participating, for all ages.

However, despite efforts to find alternative ways of stemming a swelling fourth wave of COVID-19 in Israel, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in the meeting that "most likely" there would be no option but to declare a lockdown unless Israel could conduct a massive vaccination campaign for citizens age 60 and over within a few weeks.

The cabinet decided that starting Sunday, masks would be mandatory at events including more than 100 participants, even if they are held outdoors. Meanwhile, government offices will send 50% of their staff to work from home. Vaccinated parents who care for children under 12 or other vulnerable individuals who have been confirmed as COVID carriers will be required to self-quarantine.

The cabinet also decided to increase enforcement of quarantine and mask-wearing in public.

As far as travel, the prohibition on visiting countries listed "red" due to high rates of coronavirus there remains in place, unless an Israeli obtains a special exemption, will be expanded to countries designated "orange." Starting Sunday, Israelis returning from orange destinations will be required to quarantine, even if they are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19.

The cabinet also confirmed an earlier decision by the Knesset (Labor, Welfare and Health Committee to add 18 countries to the severe travel warning list following a recommendation by the Health Ministry.

The newly added countries are Ukraine, Italy, Iceland, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), United States, Botswana, Bulgaria, Germany, Netherlands, Tanzania, Greece, Malawi, Egypt, Czech Republic, France, Cuba, Rwanda, and Tunisia.

Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz recommends that the public wear masks in crowded outdoor spaces, saying, "The virus is spread there, too. Our emphasis is on enclosed spaces first, but the recommendation is also to wear masks at outdoor gatherings."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

"The number of new cases is very worrying, and we are concerned about the spike. We want to increase the steps we are taking to battle the virus and [increase] the percentage of vaccinated Israelis. Our vaccination numbers are good, but we want to reach 150,000 per day," Horowitz said.

A total of 3,313 new COVID cases were identified nationwide on Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported Wednesday morning, meaning that 3.36% of the 98,663 tests processed in that 24-hour period came back positive.

As of Wednesday morning, 449 COVID patients were hospitalized, including 229 listed in serious condition.

As the world battles the highly contagious delta variant, new research from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem indicates that the official global COVID-19 death toll of 4.22 million people is short by some 1 million fatalities.

Inaccuracies in some countries and deliberate underreporting in others have combined to downplay the true figure, researchers said.

While this assertion is not unique, the work of economist Ariel Karlinsky and statistician Dr. Dmitry Kobak is the first time the theory has been peer-reviewed, the Times of Israel reported.

The estimate of more than 1 million unreported COVID deaths is based on the 103 countries studied, and is likely to rise as additional nations' data is included in the research, the TOI report explained.

Researchers noted that underreporting is higher in authoritarian countries where dictators are often inclined to suppress information about government failures.

The post Cabinet tightens COVID restrictions as holiday lockdown looms appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Hours after a team of experts advising the government on the coronavirus crisis voted to approve a third dose of the COVID vaccine for adults, Health Ministry Director-General Professor Nachman Ash announced on Thursday that Israelis aged 60 and up would get the booster shot.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Ash instructed healthcare providers to start administering the shots to double-vaccinated Israelis who meet the age criteria starting on Sunday. Israelis had been receiving only two jabs, but in the wake of reports that theeffect of the vaccine appeared to have waned over time officials have recently started administering a third dose to immunocompromised patients, and now with the latest decision, virtually all seniors will be eligible.

As for other age groups, a decision could be based on what regulators in the US would determine.

Another issue that remains in the air is whether or not the government should actively encourage the public to seek a booster shot, or simply allow a third dose of the vaccine for anyone who wants it.

Data collected from at-risk groups in Israel and other countries who have received a third dose indicates that a booster shot does not cause unusual side effects, while having been found to increase the amount of antibodies in recipients' bodies to five to 10 times as many as the recipients had prior to the booster shot.

A few studies have indicated that a combination of different forms of the vaccine provides the best results, so the Health Ministry is considering using Moderna for Israelis seeking a third vaccine dose. Israel used Pfizer vaccines exclusively in its nationwide vaccination campaign.

As the government debates when and how to administer a third vaccine dose, a number of medical centers nationwide re-opened their COVID units on Wednesday in light of a spike in the number of serious COVID-19 cases.

Most COVID units were shuttered following the vaccination campaign, which initially led to a drop in serious cases. But the spread of the delta variant has since been a game-changer, and the number of severe cases in Israel has more than doubled in the past week.

On Tuesday, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem published a study indicating that the Pfizer vaccine was no more than 80% effective in preventing serious illness.

The study, which was presented to the government, also predicted that the number of critically ill patients could reach 400 in less than three weeks if no action was taken to curb the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported 2,165 new confirmed cases on Thursday morning, which comprise a 2.35% positive rate of the 102,524 tests processed in a 24-hour period. The virus reproduction rate stood at 1.33.

As of Thursday morning, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients stood at 275, with 159 listed in serious condition, 33 listed in critical condition, and 26 were on ventilators.

In total, there were 15,292 active or symptomatic patients nationwide.

Since the pandemic reached Israel in early 2020, 6,463 Israelis have died of the virus.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

i24NEWS contributed to this report

The post Health Ministry gives green light for 3rd vaccine dose to seniors appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

As COVID continues to wreak havoc in India, New Delhi has asked Jerusalem for help in the form of oxygen and medicine.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

An official in the Indian Embassy in Israel told Israel Hayom that his  country wants to secure medical equipment, and had reached out to "all its friends, including Israel."

"The situation is a challenging one, but it is something we will overcome," the official said.

The Indian representative said that every country or continent had battled a massive second or third wave of COVID, but that there were a few encouraging signs that the numbers were declining.

"We are still second in the world in terms of the number of daily vaccinations, after the US. Our average for the past seven days is 2.6 million [vaccinations], compared to 2.9 million in the US. Starting next Saturday, we will make the vaccine available to everyone age 18 and over. Thus far, we have vaccinated 140 million people, or 14% of the all vaccinations administered worldwide."

The official said that approximately 10% of India's population has been vaccinated.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The management of Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv has reached out to the health and foreign ministries about dispatching a shipment of medical equipment and personnel to help India beat back the COVID wave. Sourasky Director Professor Ronni Gamzu said, "In my opinion, it is the moral and correct thing to do at this time. We cannot celebrate life while on the other side of the world bodies are being burned. We at Ichilov [Sourasky] are willing to help immediately with anything needed to save lives."

Meanwhile, the situation in India continues to worsen. In the past 24 hours, 346,000 new cases have been reported, along with over 2,600 deaths.

These are the highest numbers India has seen since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020.

Five states account for 54% of all COVID cases in India, and crematoria are overwhelmed with bodies. Experts estimate that the true COVID death toll could be 20 times higher than the official tally of 190,000.

The post India asks Israel for help battling COVID devastation appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Iran said on Tuesday a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic had taken hold in western and central areas of the country, triggered by widespread travel and celebrations during the current Iranian New Year holidays.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

"A fourth coronavirus wave has definitely begun in many parts of the west and center of the country and is advancing towards the east," Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state television.

New cases jumped by more than 900 to 10,255 in the past 24 hours, a more-than-three-month high, Lari said. She blamed the surge above all on millions of Iranians traveling or holding family gatherings during Nowruz, the New Year holiday.

Iran, the pandemic's epicenter in the Middle East, has reported a total of almost 1.9 million cases and 62,569 deaths.

Authorities have imposed night-time driving curfews in dozens of cities and towns to try to discourage gatherings.

But many Iranians did not stay home during the two-week New Year period that began on March 20, even though authorities banned travel to and from dozens of "red" (high risk) and "orange" (medium-high risk) cities and towns in efforts to limit a further spread of the virus.

Iran says it has received more than 400,000 of 2 million Sputnik V vaccines on order from Russia, and is awaiting delivery of 4.2 million AstraZeneca shots. Tehran says it has also received 250,000 doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine and part of an order of 500,000 doses of India's COVAXIN.

Iran, which has a population of 83 million, had hoped to receive over 2 million vaccines by March 20 to vaccinate mainly healthcare workers.

The Islamic Republic is developing at least four local vaccine candidates, one in cooperation with Cuba, which are expected to reach production in a few months.

 Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Iran braces for new COVID surge triggered by New Year celebrations appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Israel's COVID data appears to be encouraging, with the reproduction rate in Israel down to 0.85, meaning a confirmed carrier infects 0.85 other people, according to a report published by Military Intelligence on Thursday morning.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The drop in the reproduction rate comes after it reached 1 last week.

The percentage of positive COVID test results was also down. Tests processed in the last 24 hours identified 2,802 new cases, a positive rate of 2.9% -- the lowest Israel has seen in months, the report said.

As of Thursday morning there were 645 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition, below the weekly average of 700.

There were a total of 36,712 active or symptomatic patients nationwide. Israel's COVID death toll since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020 continues to inch toward 6,000, standing at 5,955 fatalities.

The Corona Knowledge and Information Center, which issued the report, warned that despite the encouraging numbers, the country could still see a spike in new cases as a result of most business activity having been reopened. The authors also warned that recovered COVID patients were still at risk of contracting new variants, such as the South African or Brazilian strains of the virus.

Over 5 million Israelis have received a first dose of the COVID vaccine, and nearly 4 million (3,999,353) have received both doses.

Meanwhile, Israel has vaccine over 600 children aged 12-16 for COVID and none of them has shown serious side effects, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

 Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The paper quoted Dr. Boaz Lev, who is directing Israel's vaccination campaign, saying that "We have not seen any serious side effects, only minor ones. The data is very encouraging."

The Guardian report said that some of the children vaccinated suffer from cystic fibrosis, a condition that affects the lungs and respiratory system. The paper noted that these vaccinations are not part of a clinical trial, and that pharmaceutical company Pfizer is currently working on a clinical trial of the vaccine in 15 and 16-year-olds.

In a related development, a new study by Tel Aviv University in conjunction with the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv has found that breastfeeding mothers vaccinated against the coronavirus produce a significant amount of antibodies that can be passed on to the baby through breast milk.

The objective of the research was to find out whether the Pfizer vaccine was effective in producing antibodies from nursing mothers, as well as determine the level of protection these antibodies offer to newborns.

The study was conducted in January and February on 10 vaccinated women.

The volunteers received two shots of the vaccine, 21 days apart, and the levels of antibodies in their blood and breast milk were tested four times.

"Encouraging data shows that vaccinating nursing mothers promotes the production of important antibodies in breast milk, thereby protecting their babies from disease," according to the study.

In blood and breast milk, the significant increase in antibodies occurs 14 days after the first injection and continues seven days after the second.

The researchers also found that the antibodies developing in breast milk had the potential to neutralize the virus.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

The post COVID numbers, reproduction rate down, vaccine appears safe for kids appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.