4,240 New Coronavirus Cases at Lowest Infection Rate Since December

The Military Intelligence Directorate reported Wednesday morning that 4,240 new coronavirus cases have been diagnosed out of some 88,000 tests conducted in the past 24 hours, putting Israel’s contagion rate at its lowest since December at 4.8%.

Israel’s virus reproduction (R) number crept up to 1, which the report attributed to the gradual reopening of the country’s economy and the spread of the U.K. variant.

717 patients are hospitalized in serious condition, with 224 of them on ventilators.

Notably, just 6% of seriously ill coronavirus patients are from the chareidi sector, Professor Eran Segal posted Wednesday. At the same time, he added, 50% of those seriously ill with coronavirus are from the Arab sector.

“Over the past week, the number of seriously ill coronavirus patients in the Arab sector rose 24%, and they currently represent 40% of new serious cases,” he wrote.

According to Prof. Segal, the drop in the overall number of patients whose condition turned serious is 10% and continues to fall. Among chareidim, there has been a 22% drop in the number of patients who became seriously ill.

“Analyzing the ages, the increase in the Arab sector has been mostly among young people. The percentage of Arab patients over 60 whose condition has turned serious dropped from 70% a month ago to 40%. On the other hand, the percentage of Arabs between the ages of 20-39 whose condition turned serious has risen from 5% a month ago to 20% today,” he said.

Meanwhile, while the general infection coefficient is 1, that of the chareidi community is 0.89, and in the Arab sector the infection coefficient is 1.16.

Israel’s death toll has risen to 5,797.

4,811,712 Israelis have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and 3,503,621 have already received their second dose of the vaccine. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told Army Radio that 90% of Israelis over the age of 50 have been vaccinated or recovered from the coronavirus.