Posted on 08/04/21
| News Source: i24
Bennett says 'goal is to keep Israel open' but that the government knows 'when to press the brakes'
Israel on Wednesday registered more than 3,000 COVID-19 cases for the second consecutive day with 3.34 percent of tests returning a positive result out of 98,854 people tested for the virus, according to Health Ministry data.
A total of 236 people were listed in serious condition with 58 critical and 49 on respirators.
The total number of fatalities since the start of the pandemic stood at 6,497.
Israel has begun administering a third vaccine dose to older adults and the immunocompromised and has increased restrictions in an effort to contain the highly contagious delta variant circulating globally and that experts say is largely responsibly for the uptick in daily infections.
Nearly 5.8 million Israelis have received both vaccine doses while more than 182,000 have been jabbed with the booster shoot as the government sets an ambitious goal of getting the third vaccine dose into the arms of 1.5 million eligible adults over the age of 60 in just eight days.
The booster campaign started Sunday with high demand reported by Israel's health maintenance organizations.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday said that the aim was too keep Israel open but that the government would know when to impose harsher restrictions.