Posted on 04/17/21
| News Source: Arutz-7
Coronavirus czar Professor Nachman Ash spoke to Israel's "Meet the Press" program about the coronavirus pandemic and the newly-arrived Indian variant.
Join BJL on WhatsApp Status: Click here to Join BJL status for engagements, births, deals, levayos, events & more
Join BJL on WhatsApp Groups: Click here to Join an official BJL WhatsApp group for breaking news as it happens
When asked if Israel has achieved herd immunity, Prof. Ash responded, "Not yet. We have approximately five million people vaccinated and about a million more recovered. That's not enough. We need to reach approximately 75% vaccinated and recovered in order to reach herd immunity. But we do see the facts on the ground - the infection rates are low."
Regarding the Indian mutation, he said: "A few days ago, we identified the mutation among people returning from abroad. Most of them were identified in the airport and went into quarantine, and some were identified during their days of quarantine after arriving in Israel."
"I hope that there has not been significant exposure other than that, and we are checking all of their contacts. We don't know much about this mutation, but it has several signs that are not good. We are comparing it, in genetic sequencing, to what we know and it has a few things that show that it might be resistant to the vaccine." Read more at Arutz-7