Israel on Sunday said the COVID-19 spread in the country appears to be stabilizing as the virus' reproduction number slightly drops after weeks of continued increase.
The Health Ministry said the R number now stands at 1.35, indicating the COVID-19 pandemic is still spreading in the community but more moderately. The factor indicates the number of people that one infected person will pass on the infection to.
2 View gallery
People in Tel Aviv line up in front of pop-up testing COVID site
(Photo: Motti Kimchi)
The Health Ministry said 9,726 people tested positive for COVID on Saturday, and after about 41,000 tests were conducted, the positivity rate now stands at 23.7%.
Meanwhile, the number of seriously ill coronavirus patients dropped below 300, and now stands at 296, of whom 117 are connected to ventilators.
Since the pandemic broke out, COVID-related complications have claimed the lives of 10,464 people in Israel, with the last victim passing away over the weekend. In March, 216 COVID patients have died from the disease.
There appears to be no change in Israel's vaccination numbers despite last week's announcement of yet another vaccination campaign. On Saturday, 11 Israelis received the first vaccine, 31 received the third dose, and 88 received the fourth jab.
Israel currently has slightly more than 64,000 active COVID cases, most of whom are suffering from mild symptoms. Among them, 6,042 live in Tel Aviv, 3,098 in Jerusalem - which again became a 'red' city, indicating a high spread of the pathogen - 2,587 in Haifa, 2,526 in Rishon LeZion, 2,421 in Petah Tikva, 2,250 in Be'er Sheva, and 1,973 in Ramat Gan.
On Saturday, additional data was published proving the effectiveness of the fourth COVID vaccine dose.
A study of the Health Department in the Clalit healthcare fund in cooperation with the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Faculty of Health Sciences and Sapir Academic College, found the fourth vaccine dose reduces the risk of death from coronavirus-related illnesses by 78% in adults over the age of 60 - compared to their counterparts who were vaccinated only three times.