Israel, Omicron Spread Nears 4,000 New Cases

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] Amid the spread of Omicron, the number of new COVID-19 cases in Israel has surged to three times the level of a week ago.

On the 29th (local time), the Israeli Ministry of Health announced that 3,947 new cases were reported in one day. This is three times the number reported on the 21st, a week earlier.

The positive rate among total tests was 2.93%, the reproduction number was recorded at 1.62, and the number of severe patients increased from 84 in the morning of the previous day to 94 in just one day.

Israel initially closed its borders at the emergence of the Omicron variant and accelerated vaccination for children. However, the number of Omicron cases is rapidly increasing.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expressed concern at a meeting with senior health officials the day before, saying, "The daily number of confirmed cases will sharply increase in the near future," and "Israel's COVID-19 response capacity may reach its limit."

Meanwhile, according to Israel's state broadcaster, 20,000 doses of Pfizer's oral COVID-19 treatment are scheduled to arrive in Israel on the same day.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.