The traditional torch lighting ceremony kicking off Israel's 76th Independence Day celebrations was broadcast Monday night after being pre-recorded at the Mount Herzl plaza in Jerusalem.

Video: PM Netanyahu's Independence Day message for Israel's 76th anniversary / X/@israelipm

In a video message aired during the ceremony, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "In the War of Independence, we stood alone as five Arab nations invaded our land after we declared statehood. The spirit of generations and the life force of a people unwilling to die sustained us, as King David said in Psalms, 'I shall not die, but live.' Today we are immeasurably stronger, yet the desire to destroy us remains. We saw that on October 7. Our brothers and sisters are still being held captive by Hamas, and we will bring every one of them home. The families of the fallen anguish, and our wounded display noble courage in coping with their battle injuries. When I meet many of them and many families of the fallen, they tell us our heroes did not fall in vain, and to continue until the end to defeat Hamas. And so we shall do.

PM Netanyahu:

"The torches that we set ablaze this evening will shine a bright light on the miracle that is our country. They recount, in flames, the story of our incredible nation. We will raise our flags and torches in honor of our nation."

7⃣6⃣ pic.twitter.com/H1L7pJvZnQ

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) May 13, 2024

"Independence means defending our state by our own strength, and together we will do that. Just as our soldiers fight together on every front. At the moment of truth, an entire nation rallied, what a wonderful generation we have. The torches will illuminate our country and inscribe our unity in letters of fire. For the glory of the State of Israel!"

In his speech, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said: "As darkness falls, the Memorial Day of the year that saw Israel's longest day comes to a close. Not only because of the staggering numbers of fallen, murdered, wounded, and captured, but also the horrors documented and helplessness that lasted far too long - precisely when we have a state. The anguish of bereaved families over lives cut short and the longing pierce the heart of the entire nation. We owe you and your loved ones our lives. The State of Israel owes you its independence."

Ohana urged unity, saying: "Our enemies hope the strife will escalate until it becomes an opportune moment for them to unite and strike us with full force on all fronts. If we do not stop this plague, God forbid, it could happen...These are fateful days for our future as a state and people. We learned this past year that for our small, threatened nation – unity is not a luxury. It is a basic need – like air to breathe and living water."

The ceremony featured torchlightings by groups representing various facets of Israeli heroism and resilience. This included hero security chief Inbal Lieberman and IDF commanders from Gaza border communities, chanting "So they need us no more." Israel advocacy personas Nate Buzolic, Ella Kenan, and Yoseph Haddad then lit a torch shouting in three languages: "Am Yisrael Chai!" (The People of Israel Lives!).

Security industry leaders lit a torch after successfully thwarting a massive Iranian missile attack, with the Arrow system and other defenses intercepting a huge number of ballistic and cruise missiles fired from Iran without a single one causing damage.

In a poignant performance at the Re'im parking lot where the Nova Rave October 7 massacre occurred, singer Omer Adam joined families of victims singing "Human Embroidery" as 12 memorial flames were lit across the south.

180 IDF soldier flag-bearers participated in the adapted torch ceremony, performing precision drills imbued with the spirit of remembrance and heroism. An unprecedented 44 torch lighters took part, divided into groups representing various faces of Israeli courage and resilience.

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Against the backdrop of an increase in coronavirus morbidity, the government decided Wednesday to boost vaccinations, specifically among the elderly and those with preexisting conditions.

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In a meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, and the heads of Israeli health funds, officials decided to incentivize Israelis over the age of 60 to get their fourth shot of the vaccine with 100 shekels ($31).

The government also agreed on keeping the indoor mask mandate, which was supposed to end on April 1, in place until at least May 1.

Health experts also presented Bennett and Horowitz with a plan for dealing with a potential new COVID variant arriving in Israel. Measures include, among other things, canceling air travel and sealing the country's borders. No serious restrictions on the public are expected to be imposed at this time.

The IDF Military Intelligence Directorate has attributed the increase in the infection to the spread of the BA.2 variant, also known as "stealth Omicron," in the country and globally; the decline in the number of antibodies in individuals who have recovered from COVID some time ago; and a general decrease in the public's meticulousness with health guidelines, such as mask-wearing and social distancing.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported that on Friday morning that of the 66,986 Israelis it screened for COVID in the past 24 hours, 12,003 (17.92%) tested positive.

There are 67,026 active cases in the country with 753 patients hospitalized. Of those, 300 are in serious condition.

Thus far, 746,805 Israelis have been vaccinated with four shots, 4,473,250 with three, 6,127,207 with two, and 6,702,033 have received one shot.

Israel has reported 3,831,473 COVID cases, including 10,460 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.

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The Health Ministry reported Friday morning that of the 146,642 Israelis it screened for the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, 36,858 (25.13%) tested positive.

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There are 326,756 active patients in the country with 2,479 patients hospitalized. Of those, 1,111 – 346 are critically ill, 264 are on ventilators and 23 are connected to ECMO machines. Currently, 44,645 Israelis are in quarantine.

Thus far, 684,848 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,452,732 with three, 6,110,026 with two, and 6,694,595 have received one shot. 

Israel has reported 3,347,657 COVID cases, including 9,399 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.

Meanwhile, Israeli researchers have found that the number of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies falls in both previously infected and vaccinated people, but the performance of antibodies improves only after previous infection and not vaccination.

This groundbreaking finding, led by Dr. Carmit Cohen of the Sheba Medical Center, will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in April.

Cohen and her colleagues analyzed antibody-induced immune response in 130 recovered individuals for up to a year and compared it to 402 matched individuals who were double-vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine but never had COVID-19.

The researchers found that the number of antibodies presents a month after vaccination was higher than in patients who had recovered from COVID-19. However, these numbers declined more steeply in the vaccinated group.

While the avidity – antibody performance quality – index was higher in vaccinated individuals than in recovered patients initially, avidity did not significantly change over time in vaccinated individuals but increased gradually in recovered patients.

This could explain why double-vaccinated individuals who never contracted COVID-19 are more likely to experience infection after six months.

The study also found that, contrary to expectations, antibodies of recovered patients with a body-mass index of 30 or higher (in the obese range) were higher at all time points when compared with those with a BMI under 30 (overweight to normal weight range). The obese people who had been previously infected were, therefore, better protected against future infection.

Of all recovered patients, 42 (36%) experienced long COVID, including mental health (5%), neurological (9%), cardiovascular (5%) and respiratory (31%) symptoms.

The authors conclude: "While the number of antibodies decreases with time in both COVID-19 recovered patients and vaccinated individuals, the quality of antibodies increases following infection but not after vaccination. These results provide specific characteristics of the immune response that may explain the differential protection against COVID-19 in previously infected and vaccinated individuals."

Another Israeli study – published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics on Thursday – found that Pfizer's COVID vaccines are safe for human fetuses and not associated with harmful effects on newborns. 

The research is based on observations of 17,000 pregnant women who were vaccinated and 7,000 who were not between March and October 2021.

Scientists looked at preterm births, hospitalizations, congenital disabilities, and infant mortality, finding no statistical difference between the two groups in any area.

Infant mortality stood at 0.1% in both groups, and premature births were 4.2% for babies whose mothers were vaccinated and 4.8 % for those whose mothers were not. 

Defects were 1.5% for those vaccinated and 2.1% for those not vaccinated, and hospitalizations among newborns were 5.1% for vaccinated mothers and 5.3 % for those not vaccinated.

The study also shows that these results were valid for 2,000 newborns whose mothers were vaccinated during the first trimester – considered the most vulnerable period for fetuses.

 JNS.org, Israel21c and i24NEWS contributed to this report. 

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The Health Ministry reported 36,835 new coronavirus cases on Thursday morning. Altogether, 146,599 Israelis were screened for the disease in the past 24 hours, which puts the infection rate at 25.13%. 

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The reproduction rate, which refers to the number of people each confirmed carrier infects, decreased by 0.02 and stands at 0.77, the lowest since October 2021.

There are 324,802 active cases in the country with 2,525 patients hospitalized. Of those, 1,123 are in serious condition. Currently, 40,404 Israelis are in quarantine, including 626 doctors and 1373 nurses. 

Thus far, 683,727 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,452,487 with three, 6,109,763 with two, and 6,694,481 have received one shot.

Israel has reported 3,337,574 cases, including 9,370 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.

Meanwhile, officials at the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office reported on Wednesday that Middle Eastern countries have seen a rise in coronavirus infections in the last six weeks due to low vaccination rates. 

Reported COVID-19 cases rose to a daily average of 110,000 in the past six weeks, while average daily deaths rose to 345 in the last three weeks, WHO regional director Ahmed Al-Mandhari said. 

According to Rana Hajjeh, director of program management, more than 35% of the region's population is fully vaccinated. But one quarter of the countries have not yet reached 10% vaccination coverage.

The WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region comprises the Middle East, Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti, and Afghanistan, among others.

In other news, researchers in Hungary have discovered an early version of COVID-19 in samples from a Chinese biotechnology firm that appears to have been grown in a laboratory, according to a report by The Telegraph on Wednesday, lending weight to claims that the virus may have been engineered in a lab and accidentally leaked out.

The scientists made the discovery by accident when examining genetic data from soil samples collected from Antarctica in late 2018 and early 2019.

According to The Telegraph, the variant has mutations that bridge the gap between bat coronavirus and the earliest Wuhan strain, suggesting it may be an ancestral version of the virus. 

The samples were sent to Sangon Biotech in Shanghai for sequencing in December 2019, where they became contaminated with a previously unknown variant of COVID-19, the paper said. 

Chinese scientists – including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the suspected location for the leak – often used Sangon Biotech for sequencing. 

Although the exact date at which the DNA extraction took place is unknown, scientists say that if it took place in December 2019, the virus could be the ancestor of the original human Wuhan strain.

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In related news, Sweden scrapped almost all of its few pandemic restrictions on Wednesday and stopped most testing for COVID.

The moves came even as the pressure on the healthcare systems remained high and some scientists begged for more patience in fighting the disease.

Sweden's government, which throughout the pandemic has opted against lockdowns in favor of a voluntary approach, announced last week it would scrap the remaining restrictions — effectively declaring the pandemic over — as vaccines and the less deadly Omicron variant have cushioned severe cases and deaths.

"As we know this pandemic, I would say it's over," Health Minister Lena Hallengren told daily Dagens Nyheter. "It's not over, but as we know it in terms of quick changes and restrictions it is," she said, adding that COVID would no longer be classified as a danger to society.

As of Wednesday, bars and restaurants will be allowed to stay open after 11 p.m. again with no limits on the number of guests. Limits for larger indoor venues were also lifted, as was the use of vaccine passes.

Sweden follows Scandinavian neighbor Denmark in removing most COVID restrictions. Denmark last week became one of the first European Union countries to remove most restrictions, saying that COVID was no longer considered "a socially critical disease."

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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The Health Ministry reported 1,263 serious COVID cases on Sunday morning, the highest ever since the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago. Of those, 366 are critically ill, 291 are on ventilators and 19 are connected to ECMO machines. Altogether, 2,888 COVID patients are currently hospitalized. 

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Nevertheless, the infection rate continues to decrease and currently stands at 28.79%. Of the 115,904 Israelis who were screened for the virus in the past 24 hours, 33,374 tested positive. There are 335,727 active cases in the country with 53,646 people in self-isolation. Thus far, 661,355 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,447,657 with three, 6,102,839 with two, and 6,692,594 have received one shot.

Israel has reported 3,167,112 COVID cases, including 9,139 deaths, since the start of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, a study by the British Office for National Statistics found that triple-vaccinated individuals were 93.4% less likely to die of coronavirus infection, compared to the unvaccinated. As for doubly-vaccinated people, the mortality risks were also much lower, but to a lesser degree – 81.2%.

This means, that among those unvaccinated, the death rate stood at 462.2 per 100,000 individuals, compared to 33.1 per 100,000 fully vaccinated people 21 days after the inoculation, and eventually, as low as 24.5 per 100,000 fully inoculated.

As for those vaccinated with one dose, the mortality rate stood at 377.7 per 100,000 individuals, and with two doses, 367.7 per 100,000 people.

Nevertheless, the researchers emphasized that the goal of the research, which was conducted between July and December 2021 – was not to study the efficacy of the vaccine, but the difference between groups of vaccinated and mortality rates.

In related news, there is a realistic possibility of large waves of COVID infection in the future in Britain and such waves might even be considered likely, epidemiologists who model the pandemic to inform government advice have said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ditched legal restrictions in England, saying that, while the pandemic was not over, Britain needs to learn to live with COVID.

The Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O) said the emergence of new viral variants was the biggest unknown factor in the medium-to-long term, along with waning population immunity and changes in mixing patterns.

"Large future waves of infection that need active management to prevent detrimental pressure on the health and care sector are, at least, a realistic possibility (high confidence) or likely (medium confidence)," SPI-M-O said in a consensus statement published on Friday.

Britain has reported 157,730 COVID deaths, the seventh-highest total globally, and Johnson has faced heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic, with the country having seen three national lockdowns.

The Omicron variant fueled a spike in infections to new highs at the end of last year, prompting the premier to reintroduce some limited measures, but deaths did not rise at the same pace.

He has now reopened the economy fully, citing the country's program of booster shots, the availability of antivirals, and the lower severity of Omicron , as breaking the link between infections and deaths.

England returned to Plan A last week, and the chair of SPI-M-O told Reuters that while each year should see the COVID situation improve, there may be times where the government has to reintroduce measures.

"The next few years will be highly uncertain, and future outbreaks and waves will likely be noisy as things settle down," the SPI-M-O statement said.

"A steady, predictable pattern... may be many years away."

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The Health Ministry reported 46,347 coronavirus cases on Friday morning. Altogether, 185,992 Israelis were screened for the virus in the past 24 hours, which puts the infection rate at 24.92%. The reproduction rate stands at 0.9, the same as the day before. 

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There are 373,160 active cases in the country with 2,715 patients hospitalized. Of those, 1,132 are in serious condition. Currently, 73,229 Israelis are in self-isolation. 

Thus far, 658,505 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,446,649 with three, 6,101,459 with two, and 6,692,301 have received one shot.

Israel has reported 3,094,984 cases, including 9,080 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020. Since Thursday morning, 67 Israelis have lost their life due to COVID.  

Meanwhile, a new study by researchers from Bar Ilan University and the Galilee Medical Center founds a strong link between vitamin D levels and the severity of COVID. 

Scientists concluded that vitamin D deficiency significantly increases the risk of serious illness or death upon contracting the virus. The findings were published on Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One.

"We found it remarkable and striking to see the difference in the chances of becoming a severe patient when you are lacking in vitamin D compared to when you're not," Dr. Amiel Dror, a Galilee Medical Center physician and Bar Ilan researcher who was part of the team behind the study, told The Times of Israel.

The study is based on research conducted during Israel's first two waves of the coronavirus before vaccines became widely available.

Another Israeli study published last summer came to similar conclusions about increased chances of becoming seriously ill or dying with COVID if there is vitamin D deficiency. 

The research conducted in a Galilee hospital found that 26% of coronavirus patients with vitamin D deficiency died versus 3% for other patients.

"What we're seeing when vitamin D helps people with COVID infections is a result of its effectiveness in bolstering the immune systems to deal with viral pathogens that attack the respiratory system," Dror said. "This is equally relevant for Omicron as it was for previous variants."

In related news, South Africa – where the Omicron strain was first detected – is seeing more cases of the BA.2 subvariant, sometimes called "stealth Omicron", with no clear indication that it is substantially different from the original mutation, a senior scientist said on Friday.

Michelle Groome, from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, showed in a presentation that BA.2 accounted for 23% of the 450 samples from January sequenced by South Africa's genomic surveillance network and the original strain 75%.

Of the 2,243 samples from December that were sequenced, BA.2 accounted for 4% and the original strain 94%.

"We are seeing this increase with the BA.2, we are still trying to get more information on this particular sub-lineage ... and so we are increasing sequencing from those provinces where we are seeing increases [in cases] monitoring the proportion that is due to BA.2," Groome told a news conference.

"At this stage, there is no indication that there would be ... differences between these different sub-lineages of Omicron. As we saw with Delta there were lots of lineages and we didn't see a lot of difference between them, but we will keep monitoring," she added.

Asked whether there were signs BA.2 was causing different symptoms, she said she was not expecting marked changes, adding that scientists will analyze hospitalization data for clues about the severity of illness linked to the subvariant. 

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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Over 9,000 Israelis have died since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago, according to Health Ministry data published on Thursday morning. The current death toll stands at 9,013 cases, which means that one in 1,000 Israelis have lost his or her life to COVID.

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As for the infection rate, it stands at 28.56%, with 60,537 Israelis having tested positive for the disease in the past 24 hours, of the 211,987 tested altogether. The reproduction rate decreased slightly and stands at 0.9.

There are 434,322 active cases in the country with 2,733 patients hospitalized. Of those, 1,147 are in serious condition. Currently, 80,745 Israelis are in quarantine, including 890 doctors and 1,948 nurses.

Thus far, 652,887 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,445,084 with three, 6,098,496 with two, and 6,691,702 have received one shot.

Israel also surpassed the three million caseload mark since the outbreak of the pandemic. It has reported 3,049,005 infections since March 2020, including 9,013 deaths.

Meanwhile, the IDF Home Front Command continues to monitor the spread of the highly infection BA.2 Omicron subvariant.

"The strain continues to spread in countries worldwide, currently without a uniform pattern," it said. "Due to its high transmission rate and [countries'] delay in caseload reports, its actual spread is considered to be more significant than reported."

In South Africa, the country that first detected Omicron, but that also first reported a decrease in its infection wave, has said recently that BA.2 cases are on the rise, making up 30% of daily caseloads. The offshoot now makes up most of the cases in Denmark, where BA.2 began spreading in mid-January. The subvariant has also been reported in India, Qatar, and the Philippines.

Professor Cyrille Cohen, head of the Immunotherapy Lab at Bar Ilan University, said his team has been following the new mutation.

"We have received reports that in very rare occurrences, people that were infected with Omicron could also… be infected with BA.2," he said stressing that although such reinfections do occur, they are uncommon.

Cohen also added that the BA.2 offshoot differs from Omicron in subtle ways. BA.2, often dubbed "stealth Omicron" by the media, is commonly referred to as a relative of the strain – a COVID variant that is largely considered to be milder than previous offshoots.

"Compared to Delta or Alpha, Omicron is a very mild variant in terms of severe disease," Cohen said, expressing hope that through natural exposure and vaccines, the morbidity wave could ebb.

He also seconded the government's decision to phase out the use of the so-called "green pass" vaccine certificates, which grant vaccinated or recovered COVID patients access to some public spaces, given the spread of the virus in Israel.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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The coronavirus infection rate decreased slightly in the past 24 hours and currently stands at 26.15%, according to Health Ministry data published on Wednesday morning. Altogether, 230,715 Israelis were screened for the virus on Tuesday, of whom 60,329 tested positive.

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The reproduction rate, which refers to the number of people each confirmed carrier infects, also decreased slightly and now stands at 0.91. Any value below 1 means that the infection is subsiding.

There are 435,189 active cases in the country with 2,763 patients hospitalized. Of those, 1,085 are in serious condition – 316 are critically ill, 260 are on ventilators and 17 are connected to ECMO machines. Currently, 91,239 Israelis are in quarantine, of whom 6,644 are healthcare personnel, including 914 doctors and 2,199 nurses.

Thus far, 647,831 Israelis have been vaccinated with four doses, 4,443,628 with three, 6,096,034 with two, and 6,691,819 have received one shot.

Israel has reported 2,987,977 COVID cases, including 8,926 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020.

Ministry data also showed that several Israelis who recovered after contracting the Omicron variant went on to get infected with its subvariant BA.2. As such, experts fear that the antibodies created after the Omicron infection do not protect one against its mutation. Similar data was also reported in countries worldwide.

Although it is not yet clear whether BA.2 is more dangerous than the original Omicron strain, it is thought to be about 1.5 times more infectious. Countries that detected the subvariant have since reported an increase or renewal in morbidity. A Danish study that analyzed coronavirus infections in more than 8,500 Danish households between December and January said that not only is BA.2 more infections, it is also more resistant to vaccines.

Nevertheless, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday that the subvariant does not seem to be any more severe than the original BA.1 form.

Dr. Boris Pavlin of the WHO's coronavirus response team told an online briefing that the subvariant is already becoming dominant in the Philippines, Nepal, Qatar, India, and Denmark.

He added, "Vaccination is profoundly protective against severe disease, including for Omicron. BA.2 is rapidly replacing BA.1. Its impact is unlikely to be substantial, although more data are needed."

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyeus also said on Tuesday that 90 million cases of COVID have been reported since Omicron was first identified 10 weeks ago – amounting to more than in all of 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With many countries easing their restrictive measures amid public fatigue about them, Ghebreyeus cautioned that Omicron should not be underestimated even though it has been shown to bring less severe illness than earlier variants – and cited "a very worrying increase in deaths in most regions of the world."

"We are concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines – and because of Omicron's high transmissibility and lower severity – preventing transmission is no longer possible and no longer necessary," he told a regular WHO briefing on the pandemic.

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Tedros added. "It's premature for any country either to surrender or to declare victory. This virus is dangerous and it continues to evolve before our very eyes."

WHO said four of its six regions worldwide are seeing increasing trends in deaths. And yet, many European countries have begun easing lockdown measures, including Britain, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Finland will end its COVID-19 restrictions this month. Denmark's government scrapped most restrictions aimed at fighting the pandemic this week, saying it no longer considers COVID-19 "a socially critical disease." The nation of 5.8 million has in recent weeks seen more than 50,000 new cases a day, but the number of patients in intensive care units has declined.

Also on Tuesday, Pfizer drug manufacturer asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize extra-low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children under five, potentially opening the way for them to start receiving shots as early as March.

Pfizer aims to give children as young as 6 months shots that contain one-tenth of the dose given to adults. The company said it had started submitting its data to the FDA and expects to complete the process in a few days.

The FDA said it will convene a panel of independent researchers and physicians in mid-February to help review the Pfizer data. The agency isn't required to follow their advice, but the input is a key step in publicly vetting vaccine safety and effectiveness.

Meanwhile, the Knesset ruled on Monday that the so-called "green pass" vaccine certificates will only be checked at the entrance to public events where there is a high risk of contagion, such as weddings held indoors. The ruling will go into effect next Sunday.

The government also decided that Israelis who have gotten vaccinated with the booster shots will be eligible for the pass indefinitely. For those who received only two doses, the pass will be valid for four months.

Lawmakers also ruled that COVID tests will no longer be mandatory for unvaccinated Israelis traveling abroad, though they may still be necessary in the destination country.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the meeting that the vaccines were "working well against severe illness and infections" as the reproduction rate is on the decrease.

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In related news, medics and nurses staffing Israel's coronavirus wards have recently lamented the shortage of manpower in parallel to the influx of patients.  

"The staff is exhausted," Yoram Weiss, acting director-general of Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, said. "It's not like at the beginning of the pandemic when everybody was full of energy."

COVID wards have been filling up fast while numbers of staff due to Omicron, which has also sent many healthcare workers into quarantine, affecting the quality of care.

"We have on average 10-15% fewer doctors and nurses, while we need 20-30% more because of the flood of patients," Dror Mevorach, who heads Hadassah's coronavirus ward, told Reuters.

The shortage has also forced hospitals to divert resources to COVID wards, cutting back on other procedures, and in mid-January, several scientists urged the government to intervene to reduce infection rates.

They warned that the sudden influx of severely ill patients – most aged over 60 and many with serious pre-existing health conditions – would overwhelm a chronically under-resourced health system. 

But the government, backed by other experts and with almost 65% of Israel's 9.4 million population vaccinated with a recent booster jab or second dose, has stuck to the softer-touch "living alongside COVID " approach to managing the virus that it adopted last summer.

It has rolled back restrictions while urging the public to self-test and stay at home if they are sick – mirroring moves in several Western nations such as Britain and France.

In January, it cut isolation times and cut quarantine for schoolchildren exposed to a carrier.

For Dvir Aran, a biomedical data scientist at Technion – Institute of Technology in Haifa, the government's moves have been "like watching a train wreck in slow motion".

But other professionals welcome what they see as a call for citizens to take personal responsibility while arguing that any restrictions are likely to have only a limited impact on the highly contagious Omicron.

"The government shouldn't be running a kindergarten, ensuring you stay home when you're sick," Yael Haviv-Yadid, head of the critical care ward at Sheba Medical Center said. 

"Be responsible. Wear a mask and get vaccinated," she said.

i24NEWS contributed to this report.

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Pfizer has begun a study comparing its original COVID-19 vaccine with doses specially tweaked to match the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced the study on Tuesday.

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COVID-19 vaccine makers have been updating their shots to better match Omicron in case global health authorities decide the change is needed.
While Omicron is more likely than previous variants to cause infection even in people who have been vaccinated, it is not yet clear that a change to the vaccine recipe is needed.

The original vaccines still offer good protection against severe illness and death. Studies in the US and elsewhere have made clear that adding a booster dose strengthens that protection and improves the chances of avoiding a milder infection.

"We recognize the need to be prepared in the event this protection wanes over time and to potentially help address Omicron and new variants in the future," Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer's vaccine research chief, said in a statement.

The new US study is enrolling up to 1,420 healthy adults, ages 18 to 55, to test the updated Omicron-based shots for use as a booster or for primary vaccinations. Researchers will examine the tweaked vaccine's safety and how it revs up the immune system in comparison to the original shots.

In one study group, about 600 volunteers who received two doses of the current Pfizer vaccine three to six months ago will receive either one or two Omicron-based shots as boosters. Another 600 who have already gotten three regular doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be given a fourth dose of either the regular vaccine or the Omicron-matched version.

The study also will enroll some unvaccinated volunteers who will receive three doses of the Omicron-based vaccine.

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Israel plans to implement two tests a week for children in the education system, ending quarantine for students exposed to a COVID carrier, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced during a speech on Thursday with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton.

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"The children of Israel will return to studying. Starting next Thursday, we will start Operation 'Testing and Learning,'" Bennett stated.

All students up to the age of 18 will perform two tests a week at home, one on Sunday morning and one on Wednesday morning before going to school. If the child is negative, they can go to school as normal. If they test positive, they must be tested at a supervised test station and undergo quarantine for five days.

The Health Ministry sought to impose a requirement of three or four tests during the week after exposure, but this measure was opposed by Shasha-Biton.

These at-home rapid antigen tests will be distributed to all students free of charge.

Bennett called on parents to follow the new testing procedures and to refrain from sending the children to school if they show symptoms or test positive.

Following Bennett's speech, Horowitz reiterated the government's strategy of balancing public health, economy, and democracy.

"We chose the complicated but right way – without lockdowns... The easiest thing would have been to close everything down and send masses to unemployment, send all the students home, but when we say living next to COVID, this means also studying next to COVID."

Shasha-Biton stated that ending quarantine for students was the right thing to do for students and teachers, mentioning the mental health toll that isolation takes.

"Every child that comes to school is a child that we're saving," she said.

Currently, only vaccinated pupils have the option of returning to school without quarantine, while unvaccinated children are required to self-isolate for five-seven days if they are exposed to a COVID carrier.

According to data, only about a quarter of Israel's 1.3 million children between the ages of 5-11 – who are eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine – have done so, and only 12% got both shots.

Next Sunday, the Health Ministry's Epidemic Response Team is expected to convene to discuss the issue of the fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine, which is currently only available for people aged 60 and up.

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