Israel is headed toward an outbreak of coronavirus the scope of which will be larger than any the country has seen thus far, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday in an interview with Israel Radio.

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Bennett did not rule out the possibility of a lockdown as a possible way of containing the spread.

Bennett said that Israel had "an advantage over the rest of the world," in that Israel is "moments before the wave, which allows us an edge in acquiring drugs."

When asked if the government should encourage fines for people who opt out of the COVID vaccine, Bennett answered, "I don't believe in fines. Later on today, we will agree on the regulations for quarantine. At the moment, the line presented to me is that vaccinated individuals can move around freely, even if they might be exposed to someone with one variant or another.

"Therefore, I recommend that anyone who wants to continue their ordinary routines come and get vaccinated. We're about to see massive transmission, more than anything we've known. The storm is looming. We can provide everyone with protective gear," Bennett said.

Bennett said that his goal was to avoid lockdowns insofar as was possible. "During the Delta wave, we were criticized, but I stood up to the pressure. I'm not afraid to do what is right, but I don't know what the day will bring. We'll do what's right. I don't want to make declarations."

The prime minister was interviewed as the number of new coronavirus cases confirmed in Israel each day hit a three-month high of nearly 3,000. In the past 24 hours, 2.35% of COVID tests processed came back positive for a total of 2,952 new cases, the Health Ministry reported Tuesday morning. This is the highest number of new cases per day since Oct. 4.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 15,487 active or symptomatic cases. The number of COVID patients listed in serious condition held steady at 85, of whom 46 were in critical condition. A total of 38 hospitalized COVID patients were on ventilators, and 18 were attached to ECMO machines.

However, the reproduction rate jumped past 1.47, the highest R number in seven months, the ministry reported.

Monday saw the rate of vaccinations slow, with 10,340 people receiving the first dose of the vaccine, 7,086 receiving a second dose, and 8,007 rolling up their sleeves for a booster shot. The campaign to vaccinate the country's children still hasn't taken off. Only 4.59% of children ages five to 11 have been vaccinated. Among pre-teens and teens ages 12-15 58.9% have been vaccinated, and 66.1% of teens ages 16-19 have been vaccinated. More than two-thirds (68.3%) of young adults ages 20-29 have been vaccinated.

Since the pandemic reached Israel in early 2020, 8,242 Israelis have died of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, research by South African scientists suggests that Omicron infection enhances neutralizing immunity against the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

The study, which has not been peer-reviewed, found that people who were infected with Omicron, especially those who were vaccinated, developed enhanced immunity to the Delta variant.

The analysis enrolled 33 vaccinated and unvaccinated people who were infected with the Omicron variant in South Africa.

While the authors found that the neutralization of Omicron increased 14-fold over 14 days after the enrollment, they also found that there was a 4.4 fold increase of Delta virus neutralization.

"The increase in Delta variant neutralization in individuals infected with Omicron may result in decreased ability of Delta to re-infect those individuals," the scientists said.

Alex Sigal, a professor at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa, said on Twitter on Monday that if Omicron was less pathogenic as it looked from the South African experience, "this will help push Delta out."

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"The fifth wave of coronavirus, the Omicron wave, has started in Israel, along with continued outbreaks of Delta," an official in the IDF's National Coronavirus Knowledge and Information Center said Tuesday.

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At least 183 people have tested positive for COVID in a localized outbreak in Maaleh Adumim, mostly pupils in the city's public schools, the Health Ministry reported.

According to ministry data, 23 of the new confirmed cases in Maaleh Adumim are suspected to be the Omicron variant. Of the residents who contracted the virus, 48 were unvaccinated.

A total of 61 new cases were identified at the Dekel Vilnai School, with another 14 cases at the Tzemach Hasadeh School and 27 at the Aimr Ori School. There were additional cases in a number of nursery schools in the city.

Maaleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel decided to respond to the outbreak with a number of steps that include doubling the number of Home Front Command testing sites, bringing a mobile testing lab that will make the rounds of the city's schools next week, and stepping up the vaccination program for Maaleh Adumim residents, as well as stricter enforcement of COVID regulations.

Kashriel also ordered the schools at which Omicron cases were discovered to move classes to Zoom.

"We're working quickly and efficiently," Kashriel said.

As Israel is poised to launch an expanded campaign to vaccinate school pupils, Israel Hayom has learned that only 400 school nurses have agreed to join the campaign.

Last week, the Health Ministry, Education Ministry, and IDF Home Front Command started a vaccination campaign at elementary schools last week, with mobile vaccination units already set up in a few communities, including Yavne, Zemer, Rahat, and Karnei Shomron. But the school were notified that the vaccine-mobiles would be removed, with vaccinations to be administered by school nurses.

An estimated 874,000 school children ages five to 11 have not yet been vaccinated. Assuming that a school nurse can administers 100 vaccines per day, as many nurses as possible are needed.

As of Tuesday, only slightly more than one-quarter (26.7%) of elementary school pupils in Israel were vaccinated.

In a meeting with senior Health Ministry officials on Monday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett suggested that unvaccinated children in cities and towns designated "red" and "orange" under the traffic light system go back to distance learning.

A number of other proposals were made at the meeting, including expanding the green pass vaccination certificate requirements; an end to government funding for antigen tests for children; and a mandate that half of all employees in the public sector work from home.

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The officials agreed to meet again on Tuesday.

The national parent-teacher association responded to Bennett's suggestion that unvaccinated children stay out of public schools with a statement: "We will not lend our hand to separating students. A proposal like this is a disgrace to decision-makers in Israel. The orders issued today from the situation room about forcibly bringing COVID vaccines into schools is a coercive action that will lead to battles in schools, to serious mistakes, and mainly a lack of trust between parents and teaching staff."

"We call on the prime minister to reverse his decision and consider the will of the community and the school leadership and bring COVID vaccines in only where they are wanted. We call for a strike at any school that introduces vaccines despite local opposition. Our children aren't pawns and we will not allow unvaccinated children to be punished and kept out of schools," the PTA said.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus reproduction rate (R) in Israel hit a four-month high on Tuesday, standing at 1.28, meaning that every confirmed COVID carrier infects an average of 1.28 other people, the Health Ministry reported.

The percentage of COVID tests that come back positive was also increasing, with 1.27% of tests processed from Monday to Tuesday yielding positive results, the highest percentage since Oct. 20.

However, the numbers of seriously ill patients remain relatively stable, with 81 COVID patients hospitalized in serious condition as of Tuesday morning. Of the hospitalized patients, 48 were in critical condition, 41 were on ventilators, and 16 were attached to ECMO machines.

In the past seven days, three Israelis have succumbed to the virus, pushing Israel's cumulative COVID death toll to 8,232.

Ariel Kahana contributed to this report.

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Proposed new restrictions to combat the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Israel topped the cabinet's agenda at its weekly meeting Sunday.

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, "This government did something great when it decided, three weeks ago, to limit entry to Israel and delayed the infiltration of the variant. We bought Israel precious time, we held of Omicron for at least three weeks."

But now, Bennett said, "Time is up … Omicron is in Israel, in other words, there is already community spread, and we're seeing a rise in the reproduction rate. It's started. This time, because of the very contagious nature of this variant, we need to understand – the collective, national protection that the government provides isn't enough. Everyone, every citizen, has to take care of themselves, their families, and their children.

"Don't depend on your neighbor having been vaccinated and vaccinating their kids. It won't help you much. The wave is arriving. Every family has to prepare. Every person needs to make sure that they have three shots and that their kids are vaccinated," Bennett warned.

Also on Sunday, the government approved the addition of the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Finland, France, and Sweden to Israel's no-fly list. The ban will take effect on Monday, Dec. 20.

The reproduction rate of the virus in Israel continues to rise, standing at 1.14 on Sunday morning, the Health Ministry reported – the highest R rate since Sept. 5.

A single family that returned from South Africa is behind the spread of the omicron variant in Israel, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.

At present, more than 130 cases of omicron have been officially identified in the country, but health authorities say hundreds more cases may be in circulation.

The ultra-Orthodox family of four, originally from Jerusalem, traveled to South Africa (a red country) and refused to quarantine on their return, as required by the new restrictions.

The members of this family had a first PCR test on the day of their arrival in Ben-Gurion International Airport which turned out negative, then they went to work and sent their children to school when they were supposed to remain in quarantine for a week.

A few days later, the family underwent further PCR tests which came back positive. More than a dozen people were then said to have been infected.

The 74,102 COVID tests processed nationwide from Saturday to Sunday resulted in 372 confirmed new cases, the ministry reported. As of Sunday, there were 6,772 active or symptomatic COVID cases, with 81 patients hospitalized in serious condition. Of those, 39 were on ventilators.

Since the pandemic hit Israel in early 2020, a total 1,354,929 residents have contracted the virus, and the total COVID death toll stood at 8,232 as of Sunday.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was asked to enter self-isolation on Friday after a personal trainer he worked with on Wednesday tested positive for COVID. According to the Health Ministry, four Knesset employees tested positive for the virus last week, one of whom is suspected to have contracted the Omicron variant.

Contact tracing resulted in 130 Knesset employees being asked to self-isolated, including Netanyahu and MK Simon Davidson. Netanyahu took a test that came out negative.

Last week, Bennett and Defense Minister Benny Gantz were forced to self-isolate after it turned out that COVID carriers had been with them on their return flights to Israel from the United Arab Emirates and the US, respectively.

On Saturday night, the cabinet began evaluating the possibility of issuing a fourth round of COVID vaccinations to the general public.

A special team has been appointed to look into the idea and is scheduled to meet this week.

The news comes after a new study by Imperial College London in England, parts of which were published in the Financial Times, reported that according to initial findings, there was no ground to believe that the Omicron variant was less dangerous than the Delta variant, even though as of mid-December there were fewer patients hospitalized worldwide than there were during the Delta wave. One reason for the comparatively few hospitalizations is that many more people are vaccinated than were vaccinated when Delta emerged.

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The researchers said that their work had found no evidence that the Omicron variant was either less contagious or less likely to cause serious symptoms if contracted.

The researchers pointed out that at this point, the data on COVID cases caused by Omicron was still extremely limited, and suggested that it would be a few weeks before the severity of the new variant could be fully assessed.

Pfizer said on Friday that it would take until 2024 for the world to overcome the coronavirus pandemic.

Pfizer's announcement came after it was discovered that the children's dose of its COVID vaccine was creating a less robust immune response than hoped. Dr. Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer at Pfizer, said during a conversation with investors that Pfizer predicted that in some regions, the pandemic would remain at current levels for the next year or two and that certain countries would see low numbers and contained morbidity for the same period of time.

According to Pfizer, by 2024 the virus will be limited to certain parts of the world, and the new variants that appear will affect the spread of the virus.

i24NEWS and Erez Linn contributed to this report.

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Slightly more than 1,000 (1,023) of the 51,859 COVID tests processed on Saturday turned out positive, the Health Ministry reported Sunday morning. This equates to a positive rate of 1.99%. The reproduction rate of the virus stood at 0.71.

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As of Sunday, there were 28,159 active or symptomatic COVID cases in Israel, including 674 patients who were hospitalized. The majority of the hospitalized patients – 463 – were listed in serious condition, and 186 were on ventilators.

According to the Health Ministry, 352 of the COVID patients in serious condition had not been vaccinated against the virus at all, and 29 had received the original two doses of the vaccine as well as a COVID booster shot.

Seven people succumbed to the virus on Saturday, pushing Israel's total death COVID death toll since the pandemic reached Israel in early 2020 to 7,904.

Also on Saturday, an unvaccinated 16-year-old suffering from relatively rare post-coronavirus complication died on Saturday in a children's ICU unit, Schneider Children's Medical Center announced.

The teen, who had no pre-existing medical conditions, was transferred to the unit two weeks ago and was placed on life support.

After contracting COVID-19, he developed the so-called pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS), a condition causing inflammation of different organs, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin or eyes.

The teen is believed to be Israel's first PIMS fatality.

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On Thursday, a six-month-old toddler was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center in serious condition after testing positive for the coronavirus and developing PIMS.

"There are quite a few children in Israel with PIMS, including quite a few are on ventilators. This is a serious condition. I think we are seeing a rise in PIMS in recent weeks," Dr. Ofer Schiller of the Schneider Children's Medical Center told Ynet.

A total of 86,798 public school students were in quarantine, with 14,631 symptomatic. There were 1,849 staff members in quarantine, 716 of whom had tested positive for the virus.

The number of Israelis who have received at least one dose of the vaccine stood at 6,178,847 as of Sunday morning, with 5,679,655 having received two doses. Over 3.7 million Israelis have received booster shots in addition to the first two vaccines doses.

i24NEWS contributed to this report"

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Israel confirmed 1,336 cases of the coronavirus Wednesday, up from 771 cases the same day last week. With 85,389 Israelis testing for the virus, the infection rate stood at 1.74%

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There are currently 9,673 active cases compared to 5,436 last week. The reproduction rate is 1.42. Seventy-two Israelis are in serious condition with the virus, 15 of whom are on ventilators.

Israel has recorded 856,261 coronavirus cases since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, including 6,455 deaths.

Over the last 10 days, 120 people entering Israel from overseas tested positive for COVID-19. Of those 120 cases, 86 had been inoculated against the virus, and 107 had returned from either high-risk countries or destinations Israelis are prohibited from visiting due to high infection levels. Twelve of those infected appear to have contracted the coronavirus for the second time.

With infections on the rise, the so-called "coronavirus cabinet" was set to convene Thursday to discuss a series of measures aimed at reining in the virus' spread. Among the proposals to be discussed were expanding the blacklist of countries Israelis are prohibited from visiting and allowing vaccinated Israelis to head out after testing negative for the virus at Ben-Gurion International Airport. Unvaccinated Israelis, however, would need to undergo testing at the airport and take a second test while maintaining a one-week quarantine at home.

As Israel Hayom has reported, the Health Ministry is further set to demand the government reintroduce the "green pass." Canceled on June 1, the pass was a certificate issued to vaccinated people and those who had recovered and developed antibodies, allowing them to enter hotels, restaurants, and event venues.

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The COVID-19 reproduction rate (R) in Israel is growing, and as of Sunday morning stood at 0.99, meaning that one confirmed carrier infects 0.99 other people, the Health Ministry reported.

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A demographic analysis shows that the Haredi population has the lowest reproduction rate at 0.81, compared to 0.96 for the general population and 1.12 in the Arab sector, where the percentage of the population who have been vaccinated is lower than in the rest of the country.

The Health Ministry reported that 24,291 COVID tests processed Saturday identified 1,429 new cases, a positive rate of 6%.

As of Sunday morning, there were 40,108 active or symptomatic cases in Israel. A total of 1,278 COVID patients were hospitalized, of whom 776 were listed in serious condition, including 241 who were on ventilators. On Saturday, 21 more patients died, bringing Israel's COVID death toll to 5,738 since the pandemic hit Israel early in 2020.

The majority (70%) of cases in Israel are in people under the age of 40.

Meanwhile, 4,687,114 Israelis have received first doses of the COVID vaccine (50.4% of the population), and 3,320,355 (35.71%) have received both doses. Of people aged 50 and over, 87% have received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.

A total of 993 medical workers were in quarantine on Sunday, including 66 doctors and 264 nurses.

On Saturday, Health Ministry Director-General Professor Hezi Levy spoke to Israel Hayom about the Purim celebrations that have taken place against public health orders since Thursday.

"It's very, very hard to watch things like these. Personally, they pain me. We're running around like crazy to vaccinate people, and seeing sights like these is infuriating," he said.

In the next few days, the Corona cabinet is scheduled to meet to discuss whether or not to allow more reopenings, which could take effect as early as Sunday, March 7. The Health Ministry is keeping close tabs on the data in order to put together a recommendation.

"We really want to open the middle schools and get the students back in school, and we intend to take the next step in an orderly, cautious manner," Levy said.

"The reproduction rate has already reached 0.97 [on Saturday], and if in a few days we see that Purim celebrations caused outbreaks, it will go up. That could put us farther away from the next step of reopenings and the chance of celebrating Passover like we all want to. No more than 50% of young people are vaccinated, and it's clear to us that the partiers include a large percentage of non-vaccinated people who apparently don't take care to wear masks. Anyone who looks at these parties can understand that it will be difficult for us to take the next step of reopenings, if new cases remains high," he warned.

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In a new report released Friday, the military task force on the coronavirus called on the government to reconsider plans to further ease lockdown restrictions and to act to prevent the entry of additional variants into the country.

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In coming days, the task force expects to see an increase in morbidity levels as a result of the easing of some of the restrictions and the increase in Israel's reproduction rate, which stood at 0.97, Friday, likely due to the import of the UK variant which has since become the dominant viral strain in Israel. The task force cites new research that finds that the UK variant causes more severe illness that is 60-70% more likely to require hospitalization than the original strain.

According to Health Ministry data, 3,782 of the 70,039 people who tested for COVID-19 on Thursday, were found to be carrying the virus, for an infection rate of 5.6%.

As of Friday, there were 40,445 active cases of the virus, 738 of which were serious. This relatively high number, along with the rising reproduction rate, is a sign of a halt in decreasing morbidity levels, according to the military task force report.

While 723,606 people have recovered from the virus, 5,694 have died.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein tweeted: "Most of the public understands and is aware, but I want to turn to the handful of people who can do us all harm: Leave the parties for after COVID."

"Instead of celebrating with the other, let's think of the other," he said.

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