Posted on 11/20/21
| News Source: i24
The reproduction rate of the virus in Israel is on the rise, suggesting the pandemic is far from over
Israel registered 497 new cases of the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, according to an update to the Health Ministry's website.
Israeli healthcare workers carried out over 77,000 tests over the weekend, which puts the positivity rate at 0.65%.
However, Israel's so-called Covid reproduction rate — indicating how many people on average are infected by a single virus carrier — has reached 1.02, indicating that the pandemic may once more be surging in Israel after weeks of steady decline.
Israeli hospitals were treating 176 Covid patients as of Saturday evening, including 133 in serious condition.
Of the gravelly ill, 83.3% were unvaccinated.
On Tuesday, Israel will begin inoculating children aged five to 11 against the virus, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Friday.