Israel said Wednesday that over 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths have been reported in the country since the beginning of 2022, in another grim pandemic milestone.
The Health Ministry said some 1,045 people have succumbed to COVID-related complications since the start of this year a little over a month ago, indicating an average of 27 deaths a day.
The COVID related fatalities have now reached 9,303 since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in Israel in March 2020, a little less than a week since the country passed the 9,000 death mark.
The Health Ministry added it had diagnosed 37,559 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, and having conducted 154,878 tests, the positivity rate now stands at 24.25%.
The virus' reproduction number, R, - which indicates the amount of secondary infection produced by a single virus carrier - has dropped yet again and now stands at 0.79, indicating a decline in the pathogen's spread.
The ministry added that there are currently 1,164 coronavirus patients hospitalized in severe condition throughout the country, including 273 who are connected to ventilators.
Ministry data further revealed that unvaccinated aged 60 and over are almost 12 times more likely to develop serious illness from COVID, compared to their vaccinated counterparts, while unvaccinated under the age of 60 are three times more likely to develop a serious illness.
Among those hospitalized in serious condition nine are under the age of 15 - of whom seven are unvaccinated. There are also six severely ill COVID patients aged 16-19 - of whom only two have been vaccinated.
There are currently 925 severely ill patients over the age of 60 - of whom 370 have not been vaccinated, 452 have been vaccinated, while the rest received the vaccine more than six months ago.
Several health experts, meanwhile, criticized both the Health Ministry for the grueling workload prevalent in the health system, which they say has dramatically affected patients’ care, as well as coronavirus czar Prof. Salman Zarka, who claimed Monday that Israeli hospitals "are not on the verge of collapse."
"The workload in the health system is immense. That load affects mostly those in severe condition and those connected to ventilators," explained Gila Haymes, a general nurse at Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus.
"We are indeed in the midst of a very difficult infection wave.”