JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The rise in the number of cases of infection with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus could lead to collective immunity in Israel, the director general of the Minister of Health said on Sunday.
The emergence of Omicron, a highly contagious variant, has caused a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks around the world, with more than a million new infections per day between December 24 and 30, unheard of since the start of the pandemic, according to Reuters accounts. However, the number of deaths did not increase in the same proportions.
In Israel, the spread of the Omicron variant may have been limited at first, but is now accelerating and the daily number of new cases could reach an unprecedented level within three weeks.
For the Director General of Health, Nachman Ash, this development could lead the country to collective immunity.
“The cost will be a huge number of infections,” he told 103FM radio. “To achieve herd immunity, the numbers will have to be very high. It is possible but we do not want to achieve it through infections, we want it to be the result of large-scale vaccination.”
The concept of herd immunity corresponds to a situation in which a population is protected against a virus either by vaccination or by the fact that a significant part of that population has developed antibodies upon contracting the disease.
About 60% of Israel’s 9.4 million people have a complete immunization schedule, according to the Minister of Health, whether they have received three doses in total or have recently received a second dose. But several hundred thousand people eligible for a third dose have not yet received it.
About 1.3 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Israel since the start of the pandemic.
For Eran Segal, data analysis specialist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and government adviser, between two and four million people could be infected by the end of January, before the expected ebb of the Omicron wave. .
Salman Zarka, responsible for coordinating the fight against the coronavirus at the Minister of Health, stressed for his part that the country was still far from achieving collective immunity.
“We have to be very careful on this subject, especially in light of our experience of the past two years, in which we have observed that people who were cured (from COVID-19) were being flushed,” he said. the Ynet television channel.
The daily number of new infections has more than quadrupled in Israel over the past ten days. The number of severe cases has also increased, but in much more limited proportions, from around 80,100 per day.
Nachman Ash said that he is considering allowing a fourth dose to be given to all people over 60 years of age. This fourth dose was extended a few days ago to immunocompromised people and elderly people living in special residences or care establishments.
(Written by Maayan Lubell, French version Marc Angrand)
by Maayan Lubell