Netanyahu: Infection Rate in Israel Among Highest in the World

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the opening of the Corona Cabinet meeting on Monday that the level of infection in Israel is among the highest in the world.

“This is the bad news. The good news is that for the last two weeks or so, we’re at a ‘plateau.’

“The two additional figures – the total number of seriously ill, is increasing slowly, not in a way that challenges the system, and we hear this from health officials participating in the discussion. The second thing is that the number of fatalities is increasing. In the past week the number was 68 and it is increasing, and it could increase to large numbers.”

Ten more patients passed away on Sunday, bringing the victims of the pandemic in Israel to 541, according to the data released by the Health Ministry on Monday.

Noteworthy was that on Sunday, 741 people tested positive to the coronavirus, marking the second day in a row that the number of new cases dropped under 800.

While the number of tests performed every day has also significantly decreased, both because of fewer requests and minor changes to the eligibility criteria, according to the ministry, on Sunday the national coronavirus project manager Prof. Ronni Gamzu highlighted that for the first time since the start of the “second wave,” the infection rate has fallen below threshold 1, meaning each contagious person is infecting less than one other person.

Less than 10,000 tests were conducted on both Shabbos and Sunday, compared to over 20,000 in the previous days. Beforehand, up to 30,000 tests were carried out every day.

As of Monday morning, there were 334 patients listed in serious condition, 100 of whom were on ventilators.