Israel on Thursday reported the downward trend in severe COVID-19 cases of the recent week did not show any signs of stopping while the single-day death tally remained high since the beginning of the year.
The Health Ministry said the number of patients hospitalized in serious condition stood at 1,123, 274 of whom were connected to ventilators. On Wednesday, 153 Israelis were hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to a record high of 231 patients in the previous week.
The ministry also reported that 36,835 Israelis were diagnosed with the coronavirus out of 146,599 tests conducted on Wednesday, pegging the positivity rate at 25.13%. Israel has now logged over 30,000 daily cases for 32 successive days.
Since the beginning of 2022, 1,950,495 Israelis have tested positive for coronavirus, however, the virus' reproduction rate, or R number, continues to drop and is currently at 0.77, indicating a steady decline in the spread of the pathogen. The R number gauges the average number of secondary infections produced by a single virus carrier.
COVID-19-related fatalities have now reached 9,370 since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in Israel in March 2020, of whom 14 died on Wednesday. Since the beginning of the year, 1,112 Israelis succumbed to the disease, 413 in February alone, marking a grim average of 46 deaths a day.
As of Thursday, there are 324,802 active coronavirus cases in the country, and most of them are in mild to very mild conditions. Jerusalem is home to the most active virus carriers in the country with 21,124 cases. The capital is then followed by Tel Aviv with 15,829 cases, Haifa with 10,317, Petah Tikva with 9,873, Be'er Sheva with 9,505, Rishon LeZion with 8,854, and Netanya with 7,601.
Meanwhile, the country's vaccination campaign continues to trudge as only 264 Israelis have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday and 2,828 did so since the beginning of the month — 314 on average.
The uptake of booster shots also remained low as only 895 and 4,472 people received their third and fourth doses on Wednesday, respectively.