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Team member works in the coronavirus department of Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, on January 1, 2021 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
A military task force warned on Sunday that the British strain of the coronavirus, a variant that officials say could be up to 70 percent more infectious, was spreading in Israel.
The report said the increase in the number of cases involving the new strain could lead to a further increase in the already climbing infection rates. The task force said additional incidences of the mutated variant had been identified over the weekend, but did not say how many.
Additionally, the task force said that the mutation was spreading faster among children and that stricter restrictions would be necessary to control the spread of the virus, including a complete shutdown of the education system.
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Teachers receive a COVID-19 vaccine, at the Shamir Medical Center in Be er Ya akov on December 30, 2020. (Avi Dishi/Flash90)
The Health Ministry might be forced to semi-freeze its vaccination campaign for two weeks in January, as it may run out of injections otherwise.
Unless a deal is agreed upon for Pfizer vaccine supplies due in February to arrive ahead of schedule, current stocks will run out in about 10 days at the current pace of inoculation some 150,000 shots a day Channel 13 reported Wednesday.
The pause would allow those who have received the first dose to get the second dose, but new first doses would not be given, according to the report.