Israeli health officials on Sunday said there has been a 20-fold spike in infections from the Omicron variant of coronavirus in the past 10 days.
Health officials warned if the current contagion rate does not slow down, Israel could see its number of daily COVID cases pass the 10,000 threshold in just two weeks.
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Cars line up in Petah Tikva at entrance to drive in COVID testing center
(Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Just hours earlier, the Health Ministry reported the national coronavirus infection rate has surpassed two percent for the first time since late October.
"In the last few days the country's number of Omicron patients has jumped from about 20 per day to 450. This is an increase of more than 20 times," Prof. Eran Segal, the architect of Weizmann Institute's COVID forecasting model, told Ynet.
"I estimate that within a week we will see thousands of verified Omicron cases, and it is possible that within two weeks we will surpass our record number of daily COVID cases, which was about 10,000 verified per day."
Segal urged some two million Israelis who remain unvaccinated against the pathogen to get inoculated as soon as possible.
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People waiting in line to receive the COVID inoculation in Tel Aviv
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
Prof. Tzachi Grossman, the president of the Israel Pediatric Association, meanwhile, blamed the worrying increase in infections on the country’s faltering pediatric vaccination campaign.
"The education system could have been much more assertive and shown its leadership on the issue," he said. "Unfortunately, this has not been done. There is also terrorism being committed on social networks and in schools by [anti-vaccine] parents who do not vaccinate their children."
The pro-vaccination sentiment of the two officials was echoed by Prof. Yehuda Adler, who said that despite the unknown properties of the Omicron, the vaccine is the way to protect the public against the pathogen
“We are in the dark here, we do not know where we are going, but little by little the data is accumulating," said Adler. "First of all, we know that the Omicron causes less severe disease, which is good news. We also know that the vaccine is effective against the Omicron."
While Israel has already taken several steps meant to stem the apparent rise in Omicron cases throughout the country - including adding dozens of countries to its no-fly list, as well as expanding the Green Pass mandate - the government said that new health curbs will not be imposed ahead of the upcoming New Year’s celebrations.
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First published: 14:39, 12.26.21