Ten Israeli children were hospitalized in the past week due to suspected pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS) after recovering from COVID, Kan News reported on Sunday.

Six of the children have been confirmed to be ill with PIMS and doctors strongly suspect that the other four have it as well.

A week ago there was only one case of PIMS in Israel, three more children were confirmed with it four days ago, and six more children since then.

The Health Ministry and Israel Pediatric Association are concerned that cases of PIMS will increase in the coming weeks as the syndrome occurs from three to six weeks after recovery. Health officials believe that Israel has reached the peak of the Omicron wave but there will continue to be a rise in seriously ill cases, including PIMS, for the next several weeks.

According to the Kan report, Israel has recorded a total of 220 PIMS cases since the start of the pandemic, with 50-60 cases during the Delta wave, and one fatality from the syndrome.

There are currently 177 children hospitalized due to COVID, 17 of whom are in critical condition.

On Monday morning, Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed 74,312 new COVID cases in the previous 24 hours. There are currently 1,099 seriously ill COVID patients, of whom 332 are critically ill.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)