Corona: The rate of positive tests is lower than 1% in the last 7 days

The rate of positive tests is lower than one percent in the last whole week. The number of verified daily has been lower than 500 for two weeks. The coefficient of infection also decreases. Still, most schoolchildren still study in capsules - so stay home most of the day.
Data from the Ministry of Health published on Saturday evening show that the rate of positive tests has been lower than 1% for six days in a row. Yesterday the positive rate was 0.6%. A total of 221 Israelis were diagnosed positive for Corona yesterday (Friday), and another 48 have been diagnosed since midnight. A total of 34,000 tests were performed yesterday and the positive rate was 0.6%. Today, less than 6,000 tests have been performed.
429 Corona patients are hospitalized in hospitals across the country, 268 of them in critical condition. 146 patients connected to respirators. Since the outbreak of the plague, 6,292 corona patients have died - ten of them yesterday and four today. Since the beginning of the month, 83 corona patients have died in Israel. Contrary to the trend in the first half of the week, the infection coefficient has dropped and stands at 0.73. In recent weeks there has been a clear trend of positive rate in corona tests. This week, a total of about 276,000 corona tests were performed, and 1,636 verified were diagnosed. The weekly positive rate is 0.59%. The week before there were 2,302 verified out of 210,500 tests and the weekly positive rate was 1.09%. Two weeks ago, 314,500 tests were performed and 4,412 were verified - a weekly positive rate of 1.4%.
On Thursday evening, the government approved the abolition of the fourth-grade capsules so that they could study in full grades, but from the fifth grade onwards the capsules have not yet been eliminated (except for the reduction in the rate of vaccinated and recovering students required for full eleventh and twelfth grades). Will stand at 65%). The Ministry of Education, local authorities and blue-and-white chairman Benny Gantz are among those calling for a full opening of the education system - but that has not yet happened.
There are currently a total of 4,004 active patients in Israel, 639 of whom live in Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv 197 active patients, in Rahat 161, in Be'er Sheva 123, in Netanya 102, in Haifa 91, in Ashdod 85, in Petah Tikva 80, in Taibeh 65, in Lod 59, in Nazareth 59, in Holon 56, in Balkia 53, in Umm al-Fahm 50 and in Bat Yam 50.
At the end of the week, very few Israelis were vaccinated. Yesterday, 3,536 Israelis received the first dose of the vaccine and 6,047 the second. That is, less than 10,000 vaccine doses were given yesterday. Today, according to the Ministry of Health, 1,163 first doses of the vaccine and 2,652 second doses were given.
A new Israeli study by the Clalit Research Institute and Tel Aviv University published on Saturday states that the mutation that originated in South Africa manages to break through to some extent the protection of Pfizer's two vaccine doses. Thus the expected protection of the vaccine against this mutation is less than the good protection of the vaccine against the original virus of the corona and against the British mutation, which is now common in infections in Israel.
However, the researchers are reluctant to say that at this stage it is not possible to accurately estimate the rate of decline in vaccine efficacy. Their assessment is that the effectiveness of the vaccine does not decrease drastically, as there is no widespread spread of the South African strain and it is very rare in the country.
The study was led by Prof. Shai Ben Shachar, Director of the Department of Personalized Medicine at Clalit's Innovation Division, Dr. Doron Netzer, Head of the Medicine Division at Clalit Community Division, and Prof. Adi Stern of the Shmonis School of Biomedical Research and Cancer at the Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University.
The researchers located Clalit patients who were found to be positive for corona starting 14 days after receiving the first vaccine. It should be noted that the high efficacy of the corona vaccine resulted in a very low number of vaccines being infected in the corona and once detected, each vaccine found positive for the corona was “attached” to a non-vaccinated vaccine similar in age, sex, sector, area of ​​residence and other characteristics. The study was based on about 800 subjects (about 400 pairs) of vaccinated and unvaccinated who were found to be positive for corona, and all the isolated viruses were sent to genetic flooring.