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Israel sets new record with daily COVID-19 cases

The Health Ministry recorded the R coefficient on Tuesday at 1.94, meaning that the virus is spreading broadly and swiftly.

By Aryeh Savir/TPS

Israel recorded the highest number of new daily Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases since the outbreak two years ago with 11,978 new cases, as the Omicron variant is rapidly spreading.

The previous record was set at the beginning of September. This number is not final and the number will probably be higher than 12,000.

The Health Ministry recorded the R coefficient on Tuesday at 1.94, meaning that the virus is spreading broadly and swiftly.

Some 189,700 corona tests were done Tuesday with a 6.65% positive rate, a four-month high.

125 patients are hospitalized in serious condition, 53 of them on life support. While these numbers are still low and manageable, the number of new patients admitted in the past week constitutes a 42.6% increase.

A total of 48,376 cases were registered over the past seven days, a 256.8% increase over the week before that.

Some 20,000 students have tested positive for the virus, and more than 80,000 are in quarantine.

Professor Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and an expert on COVID-19 in Israel, noted that the rate of increase in the verified cases remains constant, with a coefficient of 2.58, doubling the numbers of cases every 2.7 days. “A very steady pace.”

“The increase in the verified cases is expected to continue, although the ability to measure it will decrease due to a lack of testing,” he pointed out.

Despite the surge in infections and spread of the pandemic, the number of vaccination on Tuesday was the lowest this week, an apparent failure of the government to motivate the public despite its vigorous campaigns. A mere 8,900 Israelis received the first vaccine dose, most of them aged 5 to 11. Less than 6,000 Israelis received the second vaccine dose, and some 10,000 received the third booster dose. The data on the fourth dose is not yet available.