Data from Israel’s Health Ministry shows that despite the fact that some vaccinated Israelis are contracting the Delta coronavirus variant, the vaccines provide a high level of protection from serious illness, Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.

The rate of serious illness from COVID is six times higher among unvaccinated Israelis in the older population than those in the same age group who are vaccinated.

There are 98.5 unvaccinated Israelis over age 60 per 100,000 in serious condition from COVID versus only 16.6 vaccinated Israelis over age 60.

Younger Israelis are also benefitting from vaccines, with only 0.5 unvaccinated Israelis under age 60 per 100,000 in serious condition from the virus versus 1.6 unvaccinated Israelis.

“[The statistics] clearly show that despite the highly infectious nature of the Delta variant, the vaccine is still kicking in and preventing serious illness,” Prof. Nadav Katz, a coronavirus statistician from the Hebrew University, told The Times of Israel.

“It’s important to show this graph. It shows how extremely effective the vaccine is in preventing morbidity,” Katz said.

The graph below shows how many unvaccinated people (represented by a turquoise line) are in serious condition per 100,000 versus vaccinated people (represented by a blue line). People who are partially vaccinated are represented by a green line.

The number of daily coronavirus cases in Israel is continuing to rise, with over 6,000 new cases confirmed on Tuesday, a six-month high. There are at least 394 coronavirus patients in serious condition, the highest number since March, of whom 64 are ventilated.

At least 80 patients passed away from the virus since the beginning of the month, with 16 fatalities on Sunday alone, a huge leap from June, when there were only seven fatalities the whole month. The total number of coronavirus fatalities since the beginning of the pandemic is 6,559.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)