Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Hezi Levi handed his resignation to Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Channel 12 News reported Sunday evening.
Levi, a former IDF chief medical officer and director of Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, was tapped for the post in May 2020 by then-health minister Yuli Edelstein following ministry chief Moshe Bar Siman-Tov's resignation and led the charge in Israel's COVID-19 response.
In his resignation letter, Levi said he would perform a proper handover of the position once his replacement is named and vowed to continue promoting coronavirus vaccines for adolescents and tackling the importation of virus variants through Ben Gurion Airport.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry on Sunday reported fewer cases of severe COVID-19 illness in Israel compared to the previous day despite the country coming to grips with an uptick in cases over the past week and a half.
Out of 44 patients hospitalized with the disease, 23 were in serious condition — 2 fewer than the figure reported on Saturday. Sixteen patients were connected to ventilators.
In the meantime, health officials have detected 63 new coronavirus cases out of some 21,500 tests carried out since midnight, putting Israel's positivity rate at 0.3%.
Since the onset of the pandemic in Israel last March, 6,429 Israelis have succumbed to coronavirus-related complications — seven of whom in June alone, with the last patient passing away last Wednesday.
The country's vaccination push against COVID-19 kicked into gear on Sunday following the weekend's lackluster turnout, as 5,634 Israelis — most of whom adolescents aged 12–15 — received their first vaccine dose. By Sunday evening, 1,345 others were inoculated with the second booster shot.