Coronavirus infection rates among Israelis over the age of 60 seemed to have declined in recent days, the Health Ministry reported Sunday night, giving the country hope its vaccine booster shot campaign may succeed in staving off severe illness.
The part of senior citizens, which constitute about 90% of the country's severe cases, from daily caseload drops from 13.3% to less than 10% within a week.
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Senior citizen receives a coronavirus booster shot at a pop-up vaccination station at Tel Aviv's Rabin Square
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
Data show that 288 of 2,970 coronavirus cases confirmed since midnight were detected among senior citizens, accounting for 9.7% of the daily caseload. That figure stood at 10.7% the day before, 12.2% last Wednesday and 13.3% exactly one ago on Sunday.
The almost three millennia of positive diagnoses account for 6.15% of some 49,000 coronavirus tests conducted since midnight.
The number of patients hospitalized with the virus kept climbing, however, and had reached 922, 525 of them were in serious condition, one more than reported in the morning hours. Ninety-one patients were connected to ventilators.
Data show that 52 severe patients were younger than 50 years of age, 43 of whom were unvaccinated, eight were fully vaccinated and one patient was only partially dosed. There were also two minors hospitalized in serious condition, both unvaccinated.
The ministry also reported that 59,000 Israelis have received their booster shot on Sunday, bringing the country's total of thrice-jabbed citizens to 925,000.
The national COVID-19 death toll has reached 6,668 fatalities, 43 of which passed away over the weekend (24 on Friday and 19 on Saturday). Since the beginning of the month, 190 Israelis succumbed to complications of the disease, including six today, marking the deadliest month since March when 453 patients died in Israel.