Two-thirds of London s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community had Covid last year - nine times the national average and around 0.3 per cent of those infected died, a study has shown.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found the rate of past infection was at 64 per cent in the community of around 15,000 people.
This compares to rates of 11 per cent in London more generally and just seven per cent across the UK, according to estimates by the Office for National Statistics.
Suspected infections in the community peaked in early March, just before the first lockdown, when rates then began to fall sharply, before rising again in the autumn once restrictions were lifted.
Scheiner had also taken a very strict stance regarding the coronavirus guidelines. He received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine a month ago, but contracted the virus before receiving the second dose. His condition deteriorated quickly and he died on Sunday at Hadassah University Hospital in Ein Kerem, near Jerusalem.
In his last public letter, written at the start of the third wave of the pandemic in Israel, Scheiner encouraged the public to observe the coronavirus restrictions and to get vaccinated.
“It’s nearly a year that the Holy One, Blessed be He, has sent to the world a difficult epidemic that is spreading with great damage. Many have been hurt by it and many have died, including great Torah sages and pious ones,” he wrote. “That’s why it is incumbent on every one of us to do God’s will at this time, and. make the proper effort, based on the opinion of the experts, so as not to be harmed, God forbid, and not to infect others.”