The Leyada High School (Hebrew University secondary school) in Jerusalem made a decision on Sunday to hold 12th-grade classes on Zoom on Monday after dozens of students were diagnosed with COVID, Walla News reported on Sunday.

At this point, the Education Ministry is not aware of similar outbreaks in other schools.

The report comes after Israel became the first country in the world to report on the new BA.2.86 COVID variant, which has been dubbed “Pirola.”

The variant, which contains numerous previously unseen mutations, was discovered by the Health Ministry’s lab in Sheba Medical Center.

An elderly Israeli was the first person in the world to be identified as carrying the Pirola variant but within hours, other countries around the world began to report on additional cases, Ynet reported.

“There was great excitement, and we were asked for many details,” said Dr. Neta Zuckerman, the director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Genomics at the Central Virology Laboratory. “Naturally, we accommodated everyone.”

Dr. Zuckerman said that the significance of the new variant is still unknown. “It is too early to make a definitive statement. We are actively monitoring every instance in collaboration with the health intelligence experts at the Health Ministry. However, due to the limited number of identified cases worldwide, it is challenging to predict its trajectory at this point.”

Israel, like many other countries around the world including the US, has been experiencing a surge of daily COVID cases, with a 30% increase in the last two weeks of August. The number of COVID patients hospitalized with severe cases has also doubled, from 25 to 50.

Since very few people currently go to the bother of testing for COVID, the true extent of the increase in cases is not yet known.

“Without a doubt, we’re going through a wave, mainly seen in the community,” says Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay, the head of the Gertner Institute of Epidemiology Research. “We have not yet seen an increase in severe patients but I am receiving reports from the periphery and some from Jerusalem about an increase in such patients, who all have risk factors.”

Dr. Sharon Elroy-Preis, the head of the Health Ministry’s Public Health Division, confirmed that COVID has made a comeback. However, she said that unlike previous waves dominated by a single variant, such as Omricon and Delta, the new variant is not responsible for the majority of cases.

“In the world, there are currently five to six leading variants,” she said. “In Israel, the leading variant is responsible for only 20% of the cases, indicating the variants are slightly more transmissible and population immunity is also declining.”

“The Pirola variant is concerning because it is genetically very different from its predecessors, but for now, there’s no evidence to suggest it triggers severe symptoms,” she said, adding: “This whole thing is still being investigated, so it needs to be approached with great caution, but so far, those who have been infected with it are older individuals who did not require ICU treatment after infection.”

In response to the question about whether Israelis should resume wearing masks, Dr. Elroy-Preis responded that it’s currently not necessary. “It is important to understand that COVID-19 is not going anywhere. There will still be fluctuations in the number of cases. COVID-19 is not the flu; there are still significant changes in this virus, so we continue to approach it with utmost caution.”

“However, the majority of the population is protected due to vaccinations and previous infections. Those who feel unwell should stay at home, and those who test positive for COVID-19 should be even more careful. Those who want to reduce the risk of infection can use masks, and once the vaccines become available at the end of this month or the beginning of next month, people will be able to get vaccinated at clinics. We are not imposing, we are recommending.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)