Israel Breaks Record With 11,187 New COVID Cases

For the third straight day, daily infections in Israel exceeded the 10,000 mark, with 11,187 new cases of COVID-19 being recorded on Wednesday, the highest single-day caseload since the start of the pandemic.

After 148,000 tests had been conducted, the positivity rate stood at 7.92%.

Two days ago it was reported that Israel has the highest number of COVID infections per one million residents in the world for the past seven days.

There are 1,109 people hospitalized with COVID-19, with 666 of them in serious condition and 149 on ventilators.

Since the start of the pandemic, 7,090 people have succumbed to the virus.

According to the Health Ministry, the number of seriously ill Israelis has dropped from 750 last week. The drop was in part attributed to the protection provided by the booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine already administered to nearly 2,500,000 people.

The ministry also said that half of the cases confirmed on Wednesday were among teens under 18, of whom 5,658 appear to be schoolchildren.

The number of pupils infected by COVID constitutes 11% of all infections, higher than their percentage in the general population. Schools reopened on Wednesday for in-class learning in the new school year.