Israel’s coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash gave a press briefing on Sunday night and warned that despite the lifting of restrictions on Sunday, the coronavirus is not yet over and a new variant from Uganda was recently found in Israel.

Ash said that the decrease in Israel’s infection rate has continued and the reproduction number currently stands at .79. The number of seriously ill patients has also decreased. However, he added that “the number of daily cases is still very high as well as the number of seriously ill patients. We’re seeing more seriously ill young patients. Most of those connected to ECMO machines are aged 40 -60 and even younger.”

“The British variant, which is responsible for about 90% of daily cases, is more contagious, especially among young people, and most likely causes more serious illness in young people. We’re following after other common variants on a daily basis.”

Ash said that “the South African variant is causing 1% of the cases in Israel. We also identified seven cases of the Los Angeles variant. Yesterday we identified one case of a variant that is widespread in Uganda. Its clinical significance is not year clear to us.”

“There’s no doubt that variants are going to accompany us throughout the near future, and the challenge of dealing with them, especially with their entry from abroad, involves performing tests, enforcing quarantine, PSR tests to identify variants, and utilizing the manpower of the Home Front Command to cut the chain of infection. The solution to this is vaccination. Go be vaccinated – at every age and especially those over 50 and pregnant women.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)