The coronavirus infection rate jumped in Israel by an alarming 73% in just one week, data released by the Health Ministry on Friday revealed.

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The ministry also reported that of the 106,647 Israelis it screened for the virus on Thursday, 1,482 (1.4%) tested positive. Of those, 387 are returnees from abroad.

The reproduction rate continued to inch up and currently stands at 1.36, the highest it has been since August.

The number of active cases crossed the 10,000 threshold on Thursday and now stands at 10,526. Currently, 129 Israelis are hospitalized, of whom 88 are in serious condition. According to data, 80.5% of the seriously ill have not been vaccinated at all.

Israel has reported 1,361,886 cases, including 8,241 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. Thirty-nine of the deaths occurred in December.

Thus far, 4,184,491 Israelis have been inoculated with three vaccine shots, 5,868,003 received two jabs and 6,493,317 got one dose. On Thursday, 11,354 Israelis got vaccinated, mostly children ages 5-11.

The Tel Aviv Municipality launched a vaccination campaign for elementary school students on Thursday.

Officials warned that a fifth coronavirus wave was imminent as the Omicron variant continued to circulate throughout the country, prompting cities to consider expanding immunization campaigns.

"We are on the verge of a fifth wave of the pandemic, which may be more intense than the previous ones," Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai cautioned.

"It is important that we show mutual and personal responsibility, so, this week we will start vaccinating children over the age of 6, in schools and during school hours – just like all other children's vaccines given in schools. Do not say - it will not happen to us. The children need to be vaccinated!" he said.

Thus far, around 150 eligible elementary school students have been immunized, according to a press release on the program.

Starting Sunday, the rollout will be expanded to administer doses during school hours, with vaccine sites set up at some schools during the afternoon.

Also on Thursday, the United States Food and Drug Administration authorized a second pill against the coronavirus, providing another easy-to-use medication to battle the rising tide of Omicron infections.

The announcement on Merck drug manufacturer's molnupiravir comes a day after the agency cleared a competing drug from Pfizer.

Pfizer's pill, Paxlovid, is likely to become the first-choice treatment against the virus, because of its superior benefits and milder side effects.

As a result, Merck's pill is expected to have a lesser role against the pandemic than predicted just a few weeks ago. Its ability to head off severe COVID-19 is much smaller than initially announced and the drug label will warn of serious safety issues, including the potential for birth defects.

Both treatments will be free to patients in the US after being purchased by the federal government.

The FDA authorized Merck's drug for adults with a positive COVID-19 test, early symptoms, and who face the highest risks of hospitalization, including older people and those with conditions like obesity and heart disease.

The agency said molnupiravir should be considered for patients "for whom alternative COVID-19 treatment options authorized by the FDA are not accessible or clinically appropriate." It did not include that restriction for Paxlovid, which was authorized for patients 12 and older.

Molnupiravir, made by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, will also carry a warning against use during pregnancy. Women of childbearing age should use birth control during treatment and for a few days after while men should use birth control for at least three months after their final dose, the FDA said. The federal agency also said molnupiravir should not be used in patients under age 18 because it may affect bone growth.

Dr. Nick Kartsonis, Merck's senior vice president of clinical research, said company scientists are still studying the drug and they hope to eventually get it approved for use in children.
Additionally, Pfizer's drug was roughly three times more effective in testing, reducing hospitalization and death by nearly 90% among high-risk patients, compared with 30% for Merck's.

Some experts question whether there will be much of a role for the Merck drug in the US.

"To the extent that there's an ample supply of Pfizer's pill, I think it won't be used," Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic said. "There would be no reason, given it has less efficacy and a higher risk of side effects."

For now, the FDA decision provides another potential option against the virus that has killed more than 800,000 Americans – and over five million people worldwide – even as health officials brace for record-setting cases, hospitalizations, and deaths driven by Omicron.

The seven-day rolling average for US COVID-19 cases climbed past 160,000 on Wednesday, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. That's more than double the average in late November.

Antiviral pills like Merck's and Pfizer's are expected to be effective against Omicron because they don't target the spike protein where most of the variant's worrisome mutations reside.

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Researchers have warned that older COVID-19 treatments that are administered by IV are unlikely to work against the new strain.

The FDA based its Merck decision on results showing nearly 7% of patients taking the drug ended up in the hospital and one died at the end of 30 days. That compared with 10% of patients hospitalized who were taking the placebo and nine deaths.

Merck says several hundred thousand treatment courses will be available in the US in the next several days and a million will be available over the next few weeks. The supply of Pfizer's drug is more limited before ramping up in 2022.

The US will pay about $700 for each course of Merck's drug, which requires patients to take four pills twice a day for five days. A review by Harvard University and King's College London estimated it costs about $18 to make each 40-pill course of treatment.

Merck's drug inserts tiny errors into the coronavirus' genetic code to slow its reproduction. That genetic effect has raised concerns that the drug could cause mutations in human fetuses and even spur more virulent strains of the virus. But FDA scientists said the variant risk is largely theoretical because people take the drug for such a short period of time.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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The Health Ministry reported on Thursday morning that of the 98,586 Israelis it screened for the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, 1,400 (1.44%) tested positive. The reproduction rate, which relates to the number of people each confirmed carrier infects, increased and currently stands at 1.34.

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There are currently 9,591 active cases in the country with 124 patients hospitalized. Of those, 83 are in serious condition.

Israel has reported 1,360,098 cases, including 8,239 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.

Thus far, 4,176,653 Israelis have been fully vaccinated, 5,857,658 received two jabs and 6,481,676 got the first dose.

On Wednesday, health regulators in the United States authorized the first pill against COVID-19, a Pfizer drug that those infected with the virus will be able to take at home to head off the worst effects of the disease.

The long-awaited milestone comes as US cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all rising and health officials warn of a tsunami of new infections from the Omicron variant that could overwhelm hospitals.

The drug, Paxlovid, is a faster way to treat early COVID-19 infections, though initial supplies will be extremely limited. All of the previously authorized drugs against the disease require an IV or an injection.

An antiviral pill from Merck drug manufacturer also is expected to soon win authorization. But Pfizer's drug is all but certain to be the preferred option because of its mild side effects and superior effectiveness, including a nearly 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.

"The efficacy is high, the side effects are low and it's oral. It checks all the boxes," Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic said. "You're looking at a 90% decreased risk of hospitalization and death in a high-risk group – that's stunning."

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's drug for adults and children ages 12 and older with a positive COVID-19 test and early symptoms who face the highest risks of hospitalization.

The pills from both Pfizer and Merck are expected to be effective against Omicron because they don't target the spike protein where most of the variant's worrisome mutations reside.

Pfizer currently has 180,000 treatment courses available worldwide, with roughly 60,000 to 70,000 allocated to the US. The company said it expects to have 250,000 available in the US by the end of January.

The US government has agreed to purchase enough Paxlovid to treat 10 million people, and it will be provided free to patients. Pfizer says it's on track to produce 80 million courses globally next year, under contracts with Britain, Australia, and other nations.

Israel's Health Ministry is in negotiations with the pharmaceutical giant to reserve an order for the new drug, but an agreement has not been signed yet.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said on Wednesday evening that Israelis over the age of 60 will most likely be able to get vaccinated with the fourth dose starting next week with no prior registration required.

"I pray that the Omicron will be less violent, but people who are more vulnerable should be as prepared as possible," he told the media.

On Tuesday, a Health Ministry task force recommended the fourth jab for people over the age of 60, as well as healthcare workers, at-risk patients, and people who work with the elderly, however, the decision is yet to be approved by Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash.

Boaz Lev, head of the Health Ministry's panel of experts on virus policy, spoke out in support of the dose during a press conference on Thursday.

"Omicron's reproduction rate is high, he said. "In Germany, it stands at 3.1, in the US almost at 3. Such a high reproduction rate we haven't seen before. In previous waves, it stood at 1.2 and we thought that was awful. The [Omicron] variant has become dominant.

"There's this thing called the cost of a mistake. If a wave comes and we have not vaccinated, what will be the price? Severe morbidity? Mortality? Quarantines? That is the price of the mistake of not vaccinating. Over the next few days, we will use more data from countries where the wave is rising."

In related news, two British studies released on Wednesday provide some early hints that the Omicron variant might be milder than the Delta strain.

Scientists stress that even if the findings of these early studies hold up, any reductions in severity need to be weighed against the fact Omicron spreads much faster than Delta and is more able to evade vaccines. Sheer numbers of infections could still overwhelm hospitals.

An analysis from the Imperial College London COVID-19 response team estimated hospitalization risks for Omicron cases in England, finding people infected with the variant are around 20% less likely to go to the hospital at all than those infected with the Delta variant, and 40% less likely to be hospitalized for a night or more.

That analysis included all cases of COVID-19 confirmed by PCR tests in England in the first half of December in which the variant could be identified: 56,000 cases of Omicron and 269,000 cases of Delta.

A separate study out of Scotland – by scientists at the University of Edinburgh and other experts – suggested the risk of hospitalization was two-thirds less with Omicron than Delta. But that study pointed out that the nearly 24,000 Omicron cases in Scotland were predominantly among younger adults ages 20-39. Younger people are much less likely to develop severe cases of COVID-19.

"This national investigation is one of the first to show that Omicron is less likely to result in COVID-19 hospitalization than Delta," researchers wrote. While the findings are early observations, "they are encouraging," the authors wrote.

The findings have not yet been reviewed by other experts, the gold standard in scientific research.

Data out of South Africa, where the variant was first detected, have also suggested Omicron might be milder there. Salim Abdool Karim, a clinical infectious disease epidemiologist in South Africa, said earlier this week that the rate of admissions to hospitals was far lower for Omicron than it was for Delta.

"Our overall admission rate is in the region of around 2% to 4% compared to previously, where it was closer to 20%," he said. "So even though we're seeing a lot of cases, very few are being admitted."

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