Israel sees over 1,000 seriously ill COVID patients, most in a year

Health Ministry says 231 people are on ventilators due to complications from the virus, while 38 died over the weekend; R factor, indicating community spread, reduced to 1.01

Yaron Druckman|Updated:

Print Find an error? Report us

Israel said on Saturday the number of seriously ill COVID patients exceeded 1,000 for the first time since February 2021.
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter 
The Health Ministry said 231 patients are connected to ventilators. 
2 View gallery 
A coronavirus ward at the Rabin Medical Center earlier in the week 
(Photo: Yariv Katz)
The ministry also said that 38 people died from coronavirus over the weekend and 406 since the beginning of January, bringing the death toll since the start of the pandemic to 8,657.
However, health experts including Professor Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute, said that the wave of morbidity caused by the highly infectious Omicron variant had peaked and was on the decline.
The R factor, indicating the spread of COVID in the community was also dropping rapidly and now stands on 1.01
2 View gallery 
A coronavirus ward at the Rabin Medical Center earlier in the week  
(Photo: Yariv Katz)
Since the start of January, 1,364,451 people have been infected by the virus, over 75,000 over the weekend alone. 
Some of those confirmed with the virus were ill for the second time, including Likud MK David Bitan, who was gravely ill and in critical condition when he was first infected late in 2020.
There are currently 455,000 active COVID-19 patients in Israel, the largest concentration of them are found in the Jerusalem area, but according to the ministry and the HMOs, the vast majority of them are said to be suffering mild symptoms only.

First published: 21:13, 01.29.22