The data from Israel Thursday backed up mounting evidence around the world that Omicron causes milder disease than previous variants of the coronavirus, even as the country grappled with a record number of daily infections.
On Wednesday, total hospitalizations rose to 363 patients, after the Health Ministry reported more than 16,000 new cases, a record in Israel since the start of the pandemic, with a daily increase of 32 more people becoming seriously ill.
During the height of the wave of variants of the Delta In Israel, the record number of infected people exceeded 11,000, and the number of seriously ill people increased daily by around 100 and 1,300 people hospitalized.
“Our initial data, which is not entirely accurate yet, points to between seven and eight people hospitalized for every 1,000 infected, two of whom will become seriously ill or worse,” Sharon Alroy-Preis, chief of public health, told Army Radio. of the ministry.
“This is a significant change from Delta, which saw many more – at least 10 seriously ill for every 1,000 infections,” he said.
Detections are on the rise in the Middle Eastern nation yet hospitalizations have remained down.
Israel has confirmed around 1.4 million infections since the start of the pandemic and more than 8,000 deaths.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that more evidence was emerging that Omicron caused milder symptoms than previous variants and resulted in a “disengagement” in some places between rising case numbers and low death rates.
Still, health officials worry that even if Omicron is less harmful, its rapid rise could put a strain on health systems.
Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem opened its second coronavirus room on Thursday as coronavirus admissions soared.
“We have the impression that Omicron causes a disease that is not as serious as the previous variants. However, there is still a high level of uncertainty because we need perspective, we need to see after a period of time how many serious cases we accumulate,” said the Hadassah’s chief of medicine, Alon Hershko.
Pressure from COVID-19 testing in Israel
Since infections are increasing rapidly, testing centers for Israel have sunk under pressure, prompting health officials to prioritize risk groups and rely on younger vaccinated populations to test at home if exposed to a carrier.
Risk groups also received the green light for a fourth dose of a vaccine COVID-19 and for COVID-19 antiviral drugs from Pfizer Inc. Y Merck & Co Inc.
A week after a fourth-dose trial at a major Israeli hospital, the researchers saw the participants’ antibody levels rise five-fold.
But Gili Regev-Yochay, who is leading the Sheba Medical Center study, said that while the jump restored the protection provided by a third dose, it was lower than he expected.
“I hope to see it continue to rise, the antibody spike generally occurs between two and four weeks,” he told Army Radio.
Hershko said that so far, as in the Delta wave, unvaccinated patients suffered by far more severe COVID-19 than vaccinated ones and made up the majority of admissions. About 60% of the 9.4 million inhabitants of the country are vaccinated.
In AmericanPost.News we will follow the latest news from Israel as it reported a historical record of new daily COVID-19 infections.
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