Deputy Health Min.: Israel’s ‘Second Wave’ More Dangerous Than First

The second wave of coronavirus infections in Israel is “worse and more dangerous than the first one,” Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kish (Likud) said Sunday at the Knesset’s special Corona Committee meeting.

“We are in a second wave that is worse and more dangerous than the first one,” Kish said. “This isn’t a Six Day War, it’s going to be a long war of attrition. A sharp rise in the rate of confirmed patients was recorded from 1% mid-May to 5% of all tests today.”

According to Kish, “the number of confirmed carriers doubled in ten days. There is a large number of new critical patients.” The deputy minister said the outbreak is “spreading across the country.”

The rate will “rise to hundreds of new infections,” Kish added.

Kish noted that during the first wave of infections there were about 10,000 active patients, while now Israel is contending with over 11,000 active cases.

“We are experiencing a spreading of morbidity throughout the country” and “must work significantly to limit mass social events” including prayer in synagogues, he added.

In the four first days of July, Israel has already documented 40% of the number of patients it did in all of the month of June, and “we may end the month with 300-400 severely ill patients,” he warned.