At least 70people have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since the beginning of the month, three of them are in critical condition, health officials said on Sunday. At the Ramabam Health Care Campus, on man has been put on an ECMO hear and lung machine to assist his breathing and another woman was being treated in the respiratory ICU.
The officials said that the rate of infection was far lower than during the COVID-19 pandemic and the current strain of the virus is significantly less dangerous.
Over the past 10 days, the number of hospitalized COVID patients has dropped from 111 patients to 70. According to the Health Ministry, there are 706 known active cases of COVID-19 in Israel.
Of those hospitalized, 14 are in considered severely ill, 13 of them on ventilators. Three are in moderate condition, and 53 are classified as mild cases. According to the Health Ministry, three COVID patients are in critical condition. One woman in her 80s succumbed to the virus this month, and four patients passed away last month.
"This is a relatively unusual figure compared to recent trends, although it is still early to draw conclusions regarding various trends."Dr. Asaf Miller, Director of the Intensive Respiratory Care Unit at Rambam said adding that health experts estimate that infection rates are rising which would lead to more hospitalization in the coming weeks.
Although the infection rate around the world remains low, more countries are seeing COVID-19 spread. Spain reported a 30% increase in hospitalizations due to COVID. The U.S. reported a 13% increase in patients requiring intensive care. Germany reported a 70% rise in daily hospitalizations over the past month. In contrast, Canada and Denmark reported stable low infection rates.