Israel on Tuesday reported over 65,000 new COVID-19 cases diagnosed a day prior as the Omicron variant continues to wreck havoc across the country.
The Health Ministry's announcement came after it had failed to report the tally of daily coronavirus cases for two consecutive days, citing "overload" on its computer systems due to a high number of infections.
The ministry said on Monday 65,229 people had tested positive for COVID, while on Sunday, some 62,610 Israelis had been confirmed as carriers. Since the start of January, 532,777 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Israel.
The Health Ministry, however, has not released data on the number of tests conducted on Sunday and Monday and the national rate of infection. In addition, no details were provided on "red" local authorities, the number of active patients and the tally of Israelis in isolation.
Even before the latest update, Israel was ranked ninth in the world in the number verified carriers per million residents. It is believed that after the publication of the latest single-day tally, Israel will rise to the second place on that list, preceded only by the Faroe Islands, a country inhabited by less than 50,000 people.
Earlier on Tuesday, the ministry reported that 498 people were in serious or critical condition in hospitals, with 100 of them connected to ventilators, indicating a rise of more than 10% since Sunday.
More than 900 people were hospitalized in mild or moderate condition, some receiving care for non-COVID related symptoms.
Since the start of the pandemic, 8340 people succumbed to the virus, 22 since Sunday.