A senior health professional on Wednesday warned that single-day coronavirus diagnoses could soon shoot up to 3,000.
Israel on Wednesday has recorded over 500 new daily coronavirus cases for two consecutive days for the first time since March as the country battles the spread of the Delta variant.
Weizmann Institute of Science's Prof. Eli Waxman told Ynet the political echelon must quickly reimpose some measures to curb the latest outbreak, presenting a plan that he says will help to achieve it.
"It is important that the coronavirus cabinet make decisions immediately," said Waxman, who also heads the advisory team for the National Security Council on the pandemic.
"We are in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak, with confirmed cases doubling every week and we must not allow the situation to get out of hand and infections to continue to rise."
According to Prof. Waxman, while the number of seriously ill stands at only 1.5% of the overall number of patients, compared to 2.5% before the vaccination campaign started, it could soon change if the infection continues to increase.
"If we reach 3,000 new daily infections, which could happen in three to four weeks with the outbreak's current trajectory, we will see 50 new serious cases a day, and three weeks after that, we'll see hospitals having to care for 700 severely ill. We cannot allow these numbers to rise. We must stop this as soon as possible."
Prof. Waxman said although the majority of new cases are among children, with almost all suffering from mild symptoms, some might suffer from long-term side effects.
"We still do not know what are the long-term effects of the Delta strain are," he said. "Sure, now it affects a small number of children, but if we allow the outbreak to continue and infect tens and even hundreds of thousands, we will see health damages we are best to avoid at all costs."
Prof. Waxman said the first step Israel must take is to enforce the face mask mandate indoors, which he says is the most effective method to prevent infection.
The second step is vaccination of all children over the age of 12, adding that this must be completed as quickly as possible.
The third step is to ensure that those who need to enter quarantine do so, including travelers arriving at Ben Gurion Airport - both vaccinated and not.
"Isolations today are being only partially enforced," he said. "This inhibits our ability to stop the chains of infections and it must be fixed."
The final stage, he said, is the reimplementation of the Green Pass guidelines.
The Green Pass is a certificate issued to those who have either received both vaccine jabs or have recovered from COVID. Before Israel lifted all of its coronavirus restrictions, Green Pass had to be presented at entrances to most public facilities.
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A child being vaccinated against coronavirus at a pop-up clinic in Tel Aviv
(Photo: Reuters)
"The main objective in this will be to limit the number of unvaccinated people at public spaces, especially indoors," Prof. Waxman said. "These guidelines must also be applied to children over the age of 12, who are eligible to be inoculated."
"If we take all these steps, there is a good chance we can stop the outbreak at this point. If we do not do this, we will have to stop it later with more drastic measures," he added.