Trial Site News | 4 Feb 2022
On Friday, Israel’s “coronavirus cabinet” dropped the requirement for vaccination proof for most places, meaning Israelis no longer need to show their Green Pass or proof of vaccination. This removes barriers to admittance to hotels, restaurants, theaters, and gyms. This is a dramatic turnaround, evidencing a total change in pandemic response and policy. All these moves happen despite pandemic-shattering records and a disturbing increase in Covid-related deaths.
COVID-19 Cases & Deaths Skyrocket Despite Heavily Vaxxed Population
At the end of January, TrialSite reported SARS-CoV-2 cases were hitting new highs despite not only being one of the heaviest vaccinated populations worldwide but also one of the top booster rates. In fact, Israel now moves to its fourth booster dose with the Pfizer Covid vaccine.
The daily death tally has grown to unfathomable highs given the vaccination rates. On February 1, Israel had the highest number of deaths in one day at 121; and just days later, on February 3rd, the number hit 86 deaths. These numbers of deaths were not anticipated given nearly every adult has received three doses and many now are on their fourth dose. In the last seven days, over 300 Israelis have died of covid, and in the last month, coronavirus cases in Israel have spiked despite the country’s high vaccination rate.
Covid infections in Israel are on the decline but on Thursday there were over 46,000 new cases, which is a steep drop from the over 60,000 on Wednesday. Of those cases, only 1132 were labeled as “serious” and 355 of those are “critical.” To date, over 650,000 Israelis have received a fourth vaccination. Since the start of the pandemic, over 9000 Israelis have died. But almost 3 million Israelis have recovered from the virus.
The infection levels as measured by the R rate are below 1 now so the infectious trend appears to be turning around.
Protections Continue
But the Israeli government will continue to enforce coronavirus regulations, including mask-wearing, and the unvaccinated providing proof of a negative covid test every 48 hours in “educational institutions”. So-called “high risk” events like weddings and parties will require a “certificate”.
The school extensions will continue until March 1 and will then be subject to the approval of the Education Committee of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament). The new Israeli Green Pass regulations were also extended until March 1.
There are exceptions to the new requirements, and they include, event halls or gardens, conference halls where cold food is served, and cultural events where audiences will not be seated for the duration of the event. Also, the government will no longer require an occupancy limit in places still operating under Green Pass rules and restaurants will no longer have to keep tables 1.5 meters (4 feet) apart.
The new rules for Israelis start on February 7.Questions about the effectiveness of the fourth shot have persisted. The Israeli Health Ministry acknowledged infections have declined but serious cases of covid and the number of deaths have increased. Of course, what they didn’t say was that the current surge has shattered all previous daily new infection records due to not only the highly transmissible delta and omicron variants of concern but also a Pfizer vaccine that wanes in effectiveness.
