As Israel confirmed over 4,000 new COVID cases on Thursday for the second consecutive day, Health Ministry director-general Prof. Nachman Ash announced on Wednesday evening during a press conference that mask-wearing is now required in gatherings of 50 or more people, even outdoors. The mandate went into effect at midnight on Thursday.

The government also approved a Green Pass requirement for participants in gatherings of 100 or more.

Health Ministry Nitzan Horowitz warned that officials are preparing for the highest infection rate ever seen in Israel.

Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of the Health Ministry’s Public Health division, urged parents to vaccinate their children. “Omicron is breaking records in the world, where most of the cases are in young people, and most of the hospitalizations are of children aged 5-11 who are not vaccinated,” she said.

Coronavirus czar Prof. Salman Zarka emphasized that the Delta COVID variant is still present in Israel together with the Omicron.

“We may be able to say next week, where each variant is spreading but will consider this fifth wave a combination of both,” he said. “We’re seeing a distinct rise of an additional 2,000 confirmed cases daily as we expected and a rise in hospitalizations. The virus does not care if you are celebrating the new year or a religious festival, so I recommend that those at risk especially, avoid crowded events.”

Researchers at Hebrew University estimate that new daily COVID cases will rise to 15,000-20,000 in less than two weeks, and there will be 1,000-2,500 serious cases by the end of January, Kan News reported on Thursday. As of Thursday, there are only 94 seriously ill patients in Israel, the majority of whom are unvaccinated.

Prof. Eran Segal of Weizmann Institute predicted that daily cases will reach 20,00 to 30,000 in a matter of weeks.

“At the peak, we’ll reach 20,000 to 30,000 cases a day, though I’m not sure we’ll be able to measure it because we’ll be limited in our ability to test so many people a day.” he told Channel 12 News.

Health officials are warning that Israel’s hospitals will collapse from the number of expected patients. Although Omicron causes mostly mild symptoms in most patients, the sheer number of expected cases means that even the small percentage of patients who require hospitalization will overwhelm the health system.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)