CoronavirusIsrael
By C. Isaacs
YERUSHALAYIM -
Tuesday, February 2, 2021 at 6:27 am | כ שבט תשפ א
Wearing a face mask while shopping for groceries next to the Machaneh Yehudah market in Yerushalayim. (Fitoussi/Flash90)
Prof. Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science said on Channel 13 news that Israel and the world will have to learn to live under the shadow of COVID-19 for a long time. The continuing mutation of the virus, coupled with the inability to vaccinate children currently, makes a full return to normal life anytime soon unlikely.
“Before the more infectious U.K. and South African strains emerged, medical officials had estimated that around 60-70% of the population must attain immunity either by recovering from the disease or by getting vaccinated for herd immunity to be achieved, Segal said.
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Medical teams team wearing safety gear as they work in the coronavirus ward of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospitall in Jerusalem on February 1, 2021(. Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
A military task force advising the Health Ministry cautioned Tuesday that coronavirus infection may be on the rise again, even after a month of lockdown, as a health official said the current closure may not be Israel’s last.
“Morbidity is continuing at very high rates, and it is possible that it is starting to rise again,” the IDF Military Intelligence Directorate task force wrote in a report. It noted that the weeks of lockdown have yet to cause a drop in the test positivity rate or in the number of serious patients.