Nine hours before the start of Israel's third nationwide lockdown at 5pm on Sunday, the Health Ministry released data showing that Israel's positive rate for coronavirus tests is still above 4%.
On Saturday, 2,630 Israelis tested positive for the coronavirus, a relatively low number due to the small number of tests conducted on Shabbat.
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A scientist carries out coronavirus at the central laboratory in Or Yehuda
(Photo: EPA)
More than 63,000 corona tests were performed, yielding a positivity rate of 4.1%.
Israel has 36 localities with more than 200 active patients.
In the last seven days, more than 540,000 tests have been performed, with an average positivity rate of 4.3%. The total number of people in Israel infected with the virus has reached 399,642.
There are 1,054 COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the country, with 584 in critical condition – a rise of 91 patients since last Monday. There are also 133 people on ventilators.
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Treating coronavirus patients at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot
(Photo; Hagai Dekel)
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, 3,210 COVID-19 patients have died in Israel - 112 of them in the past week.
On August 21, after almost half a year of the pandemic, Israel had 100,000 people infected with the virus.
Israel crossed the 200,000 mark a month and a half later on September 23, and just three weeks after that, on October 15, there were 300,000 infections.
On Sunday, almost two and a half months on, Israel will cross the 400,000 mark for positive tests and is on course to see half a million infections before the end of January.
There are currently 35,525 active coronavirus patients in Israel, with almost one in five of them a resident of Jerusalem.
The capital has 7,005 active patients; Bnei Brak has 1,351; Tel Aviv has 1,177 and Haifa 1,078.
Only three cities in Israel remain "green," meaning they have a low infection rate: Dimona, Nesher and Eilat.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Sunday morning that so far 280,000 people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.