Israel has recorded the highest number of new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, with 10,021 people added to the list of patients with Covid-19 on Monday.
The new figures from the Ministry of Health were “worrying”, admitted on Tuesday morning the tsar of the country’s crown, Dr. Nahman Ash, on Israeli radio, which highlighted a positive test rate of 10.2%.
Of particular concern are positivity rates in ultra-Orthodox areas, which are more than double the national figure, currently between 20-22%, Ash added.
The total number of cases since the pandemic began is 562,167, and the death toll in Israel is already 4,049, according to the latest figures.
The rise in numbers comes just days before Israel emerges from what was called its third blockade. Ash told radio listeners he hoped a cabinet meeting Tuesday afternoon would approve a new two-week extension.
Figures from the Ministry of Health show that vaccination is continuing at a good pace, as 2,185,113 people have received the first dose, from a population of about 9 million; 420,015 have received their second dose.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces the electorate in a fourth election in two years in March, has made Israel’s world-leading vaccination program the central message of his re-election campaign.
In a new video posted on his Facebook page, the Prime Minister is seen standing in his office describing a display case inside which is mounted a replica of a Roman arrow and a miniature of the Arrow missile from Israel. He then goes to another display case inside which is mounted the syringe with which he received the first injection of coronavirus vaccine last month.
“Another arrow,” he says.
Beneath the case is engraved the phrase the prime minister offered to the nation the evening he received his first dose, live on television, “A small injection for man, a giant leap for health of all of us “.