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Posted By admin on March 28, 2022

The rate of coronavirus infection contracted for the third day in a row following a spike in the virus' spread across Israel that coincided with Purim weekend, Health Ministry data from Sunday shows.

The country's R number the average number of people each coronavirus carrier infects dropped to 1.35, the third consecutive day of decline following a month-long climb that alarmed health experts. Thenumberis calculated using data from the last10 days. The pandemic is contracting as long as the infection rate is less than 1.

The number of new infections also dropped for the third day in a row at 9,726 new patients diagnosed with COVID-19 on Saturday, down from Friday's report of 11,678 cases.

Despite the tailing off, the average daily infections currently stands 12,653, almost double the previous week.

As of Saturday, 296 coronavirus patients are in serious condition, down from 322 six days prior. Of the seriously ill patients, 117 are connected to respirators and 20 are on ECMO machines.

The spate of infections resurrected the dormant government coronavirus advisory panel, which met Tuesday for the first time since February 7, looking to devise new strategies to incentivize Israelis to get their fourth vaccine dose, even though vaccine requirements across public life have been scrapped.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz met with the heads of Israel's health maintenance organizations, providing them a 100-shekel ($31) incentive for each person they vaccinate with the fourth dose aged over 60 and maintaining the mask mandate in closed spaces until May 1.

Since March, the infectiousBA.2 varianthas replaced omicron as the dominant strain in the country andis estimated to account for 60 to 80 percent of new cases.

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Israel's COVID infection rate wanes for the third straight day after month-long surge - Haaretz

Category: Israel
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