Israel's death toll in the coronavirus pandemic reached close to 6,000 on Sunday morning, the Health Ministry said, even as the country saw a three-month low in its positivity rate over the weekend.
The number of fatalities in the pandemic in Israel reached 5,992 people on Sunday, with almost 1,000 deaths coming since the start of February.
The Health Ministry also said that the percentage of positive results from the 27,026 tests carried out on Saturday was 2.9% - the lowest since the start of December, before the country went into its third full lockdown of the pandemic.
The ministry also put the R or reproduction number (how fast the virus spreads from person to person) at 0.78, meaning that each infected person is on average passing the virus to less than one other person.
The country has seen its infection rates and number of serious cases decline as its world-leading vaccine drive began to show results. As of Sunday morning, there were 644 seriously ill patients in hospital, including 191 people on ventilators.
An advisor to the ministerial coronavirus taskforce, Prof. Eran Segal, wrote on Twitter on Sunday that Israel is also seeing a drop in its R number compared to the immediate aftermath of the second lockdown in late 2020.
The Health Ministry on Saturday evening announced the lifting of some the entry restrictions for residential facilities across the country, with up to two visitors allowed per resident at one time. Under the new regulations, guests must be have been fully vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 or under the age of 16.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said: "The positive public response to the vaccine drive and its effect on reducing morbidity also allows us to alleviate, albeit only slightly, visitation restrictions for those residing in health and welfare facilities."