For the first time since October, Israel's Covid-19 R (basic reproduction and growth) number has fallen below 1, the point at which new virus cases should fall, the Ministry of Health reports.
The number of new daily coronavirus cases also supports cautious optimism that Israel has passed the peak of the pandemic's third wave. 8,170 new cases were reported yesterday down from 9,420 from last Wednesday. This is the second consecutive day that the week-on-week figures have fallen after the number of new daily cases peaked at an all-time record of 10,551 on Monday.
There are currently 1,132 people seriously ill with Covid-19 in Israel's hospitals, down from more than 1,200 earlier this week. 4,179 people have died of Covid-19 in Israel since the start of the pandemic out of a total of 578,319 cases.
Israel's third lockdown has been extended until the end of the month by which time it is hoped that the country's highly successful vaccination drive will begin to impact. For the second successive day more than 200,000 people were vaccinated yesterday, Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein reported, and to date more than 2,364,828 Israelis have been vaccinated including 691,876 people who have already received their second dose.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 21, 2021
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