The number of new coronavirus cases is rising, as 10,084 people were diagnosed with the virus out of more than 165,000 who were screened, a 6.6% positivity rate, the Health Ministry reported Sunday.
The authorities announced they would set up additional testing stations to meet increased demand before and after Yom Kippur
On Friday, 9,794 new virus carriers were identified, and 7,921 tested positive on Thursday, the ministry reported. The past week’s results were affected by Rosh Hashanah.
The reproduction rate, or R, which measures how many people each virus carrier infects, also increased. When the R is below 1, the disease is considered to be receding. After dropping to as low as 0.8, the R climbed to 0.96 on Sunday. The figure released every day reflects the situation of about 10 days before, including on September 1, when schools reopened.
The number of patients in serious condition remained stable at 697. Since the beginning of the month, the figure has fluctuated between about 660 and 700. Some 154 of these patients were ventilated as of Sunday. The number of deaths has risen to 7,338, with some 260 people succumbing to the virus in September.
The majority of serious cases are unvaccinated individuals, according to the data.
“The coronavirus has become an event of the unvaccinated,” Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) said at Sunday’s cabinet meeting. “Avoiding vaccination simply causes death in the end.”
An unvaccinated 21-year-old died of COVID-19 Saturday night after he was brought to Holon’s Wolfson Medical Center in critical condition, the hospital said. It is unknown whether the individual suffered from underlying medical conditions.
“Right now, as we speak, two 40-year-old guys are struggling for their lives,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday at the start of the cabinet meeting. “It is simply unnecessary. It is unnecessary deaths and unnecessary illnesses. It is heartbreaking, and it does not have to be this way.”
He cited a study published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed unvaccinated individuals were 11 times more likely to die from the disease than those who were fully vaccinated.
More than 2.8 million Israelis have received three shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, 5.5 million have had two doses, and more than six million have had one shot.
Cabinet members said the push to vaccinate would have to continue.
“All public employees should be vaccinated,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai said.
Social Equality and Pensioners Minister Meirav Cohen (Yesh Atid) and other ministers spoke about “lenient” policies at Ben-Gurion Airport after more than 1,500 Breslov Hassidim who traveled to Uman, Ukraine, for Rosh Hashanah returned to Israel and tested positive for coronavirus.
Bennett acknowledged that the situation would need to be fixed.
“Minister Cohen is right: The next variant will come from” the airport, he said. “I call it ‘the Omega.’”
The Health Ministry is working on a mechanism for genetic sequencing for everyone who enters Israel, Bennett said.
More than 155,000 teachers and students have entered isolation since the start of the school year, including some 43,000 active cases, more than half of the cases in the country.
According to Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton, more than 90% of the students and staff who enter isolation have tested negative for the virus.
The country is now piloting the Green Class program among the Arab community, with the goal of rolling it out sometime next month to the rest of society.
Under the Green Class outline, children whose classmates screen positive would not need to quarantine, but rather be tested every day for a week. The outline is already being tested in several haredi (ultra-Orthodox) schools.
“There is a strong desire to keep whole classes out of isolation,” Bennett said.
Also on Sunday, coronavirus commissioner Prof. Salman Zarka told the Knesset about 30 additional coronavirus testing complexes will be added to the existing complexes in the coming week to help offset an expected flood of requests from people to be screened for the virus before and after Yom Kippur.
The number of testing complexes has already been increased from 115 to 160, Bennett said at the cabinet meeting.
In recent days, some testing complexes have had long waiting lines of up to three or four hours, which Zarka said was partly due to the start of the school year and partly due to the High Holy Days. Some people took PCR tests instead of rapid antigen tests, which would have sufficed, he said at a Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting.
For Yom Kippur, the antigen tests will be valid until the end of the fast, up to 36 hours, and anywhere a Green Pass is required, including synagogues, the test will be valid, Zarka said.
“We did not expect people to do another antigen test to go to break the fast,” he said.
It is less expensive for people to take a PCR test, and that is partly why people are taking them instead of antigen tests, Zarka said. A public-relations campaign was needed to explain that the antigen tests should be taken for the Green Pass program, he added.
“There is also confusion about the requirement of PCR tests for children who want to visit hotels,” Zarka said, adding that the ministry would decide if an antigen test can suffice for a visit to a hotel instead of a PCR test.
“Currently, there is a plan to deploy the test complexes until Sukkot in terms of complexes and operating hours,” he said, meaning that the additional 30 complexes and later hours would be implemented through the holiday, which ends on September 28 in Israel.
“There was an unusual load… but we can provide an answer,” Zarka said. “We are increasing the number of staff, providing targeted information on antigen testing, and in the coming days, we are also preparing for more [help] from Home Front Command and the health funds.”
The State Comptroller’s Report last month discussed crowding of coronavirus testing centers. It recommended that the Health Ministry and Home Front Command analyze the waiting times and reach conclusions, something that seems to have not been done yet.
Zarka, however, stressed that the complexes were not packed in all locations and that there were some with moderate lines and waits.
At the cabinet meeting, Cohen said she had also spent Rosh Hashanah in long lines with her children.
“We need to provide an answer for this,” she said. “These are important and prove themselves, but at the operational level, they need to be resolved.”