754 New Coronavirus Cases in Israel; Nearly Half of New Cases – Israeli Arabs

The Health Ministry said Thursday morning that 754 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Wednesday after 39,699 tests were conducted, with around 2% of tests returned positive.

The tests show a reproduction number, or R value, of 0.92, up from Wednesday’s 0.88.

In a breakdown by sector, the percentage of positive coronavirus results in Israel’s Arab sector was 5.9%, more than five times higher than the percentage of positive results in the general population, the National Security Council reported.

The chareidi sector had a positive percentage of 2.1% for the same 24-hour period.

Approximately half of the new cases – 358 – were Arab Israelis.

There are currently 353 people hospitalized in serious condition, with 154 of them on ventilators.

Israel’s death toll rose to 2,597 fatalities since the start of the pandemic.