Coronavirus in Israel: 1.7% of tests are less than 300 new cases

Coronavirus infection rates continued to decline in Israel as 285 new cases of the new coronavirus were identified on Saturday, with only 1.7% of tests being positive, the health ministry reported Sunday.

Although the number of tests administered on Saturdays is constantly lower than on other weekdays, the decrease is still significant, as the previous Saturday was reported approximately 783 cases and in the previous case approximately 1,788 cases. The last time Israel registered such a low number of cases was again on a Saturday, but in October.

The R rate, or reproduction rate, also continued to decline, standing at 0.62. The figure reflects how many people infected each coronavirus carrier on average. If the number is lower than 0.8, the disease is considered to decrease. Experts closely monitored the rate to see how lifting restrictions affected the disease’s ability to infect. While currently the vast majority of activities have resumed for at least two weeks, the R is gradually declining.

In addition, only four people succumbed to the virus on Saturday, the lowest daily toll in months. About 6,085 have died from the virus since the start of the pandemic.

Of those infected, 561 were in a serious condition and 199 were on ventilators. The numbers are in line with previous days.

Meanwhile, more than 4.5 million Israelis have been vaccinated with both doses of coronavirus vaccination. In total, 5,184,902 Israelis received at least the first dose of the vaccine, and 61% of Israelis are at least two weeks after their first dose.

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