The morbidity in Israel is not slowing down, Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash said on Sunday, as government officials discussed a new outline for the school year.
The number of serious patients climbed to 212, marking an increase of 11 people in 12 hours and of almost 60 since Thursday.
“The rate of positive tests has passed the 3% mark, and we are not seeing a slowdown in morbidity,” Ash said, in an interview with Radio KAN Bet. “We are monitoring the data. We can say that it reassures us that the number of ventilated patients has not increased much, but it certainly worries us.”
Thirty-seven patients were on ventilators as of Sunday morning, compared with 27 on Thursday, and 20 the previous Sunday.
There were 2,080 new cases identified on Saturday, fewer than on previous days but with a lower number of tests processed – around 66,000 compared to over 90,000.
Moreover, the reproduction rate, or R – which measures how many people each virus carrier infects on average – has started to increase again, reaching 1.38 after a few days at 1.33 (the latter meaning that every three people infect four others). When the R rate is higher than one, the morbidity is rising.
In addition, three people succumbed to the virus on Saturday, bringing the death toll for July to 47. While the figure is far from resembling the worst months of the pandemic – when dozens of people died from the virus in a single day – it still marks an increase from June, when there were only eight victims, and May when they were 35.
Ash expressed hope that the campaign to give a third vaccine to people over 60 – which began on Friday – will help improve the situation.
“It may be that the third vaccine will last for longer,” he explained, adding that “I really hope we don’t have to get vaccinated every six months. We may have to get vaccinated every year, like the flu.”
Ash said that at the moment they are not planning to impose further restrictions for the Jewish holidays next month, as long as the number of serious patients remains under control.
At the peak of the pandemic in January, Israel reached 1,200 patients, placing unprecedented strain on the health system.
ALSO ON Sunday, experts from the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer presented an outline for the upcoming school year to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton.
The outline, dubbed “Green classroom,” aims at minimizing the impact of the coronavirus on Israeli schoolchildren.
The plan involves employing widespread testing for students learning in person rather than have them continue remote learning and quarantine as tools to contain possible outbreaks, similar to what the Education Ministry had proposed last week.
Sheba’s team – led by Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit – suggested conducting mass serological tests to check for the presence of antibodies in children. The operation would target 1.6 million schoolchildren from pre-school to sixth grade, since they are not eligible to be vaccinated.
All students who are vaccinated or recovered – and therefore present antibodies – would be able to continue to attend school even if they come in contact with a confirmed case after a negative coronavirus test.
Those who are not vaccinated would undergo a rapid test every day for seven days to detect and catch new cases early; children who are positive for the virus would still be required to isolate.
Local morbidity in the city or area where the school is located would also be factored in.
For the past few days, health and education officials have been arguing over how to guarantee a normal school year for Israeli children.
The chief point of contention has been the proposal by the Education Ministry to launch a special quarantine outline for the education system, according to which students and teachers who come in contact with verified cases would be able to return to the classrooms after 48 hours and a negative PCR test. Ash rejected the idea, suggesting that it will lead to an increase in outbreaks and morbidity.