Serious COVID cases fall under 100 for first time since June

Serious COVID-19 cases in Israel fell below 100 this week for the first time since June, and active cases briefly dipped under 10,000 for the first time in 2022.

According to the latest Health Ministry figures, released Friday, 94 people were hospitalized in serious condition as a result of the coronavirus.

Of those patients, 33 were listed as critical.

There were 10,239 active reported cases in Israel on Thursday, a slight increase from the 9,965 cases on Wednesday.

Additionally, new daily reported cases dropped below 1,000 this week for the first time since December 2021, the data showed.

The death toll in Israel since the start of the pandemic stood at 11,620, with 11 of those fatalities occurring over the past seven days.

While the percentage of positive COVID tests has fluctuated in recent days, the figures reflect an overall trend of dwindling COVID cases in Israel as it winds down from the sixth wave of infections, fueled by the BA.5 subvariant of the Omicron strain, which was detected in more than half of the tested cases during June’s peak.

The virus reproduction number (R) has increased slightly over the course of August, but has remained under 1 since June 28 — the latest data pegged it at 0.89.

The R figure is based on rates from 10 days earlier and measures how many people each coronavirus carrier infects on average, with any number above 1 meaning the spread of COVID-19 is increasing.

Israel was an early leader in the global vaccine campaign, and has authorized fourth vaccine doses for the elderly and certain high-risk adults. It nonetheless saw record-breaking cases caused by the Omicron surge at the beginning of 2022, followed by smaller upticks as a result of the BA.5 subvariant.