For the first time since the pandemic began, Israel says more than a quarter of its most serious cases of Covid-19, where hospitalization is needed, are in patients younger than 60.
The Israeli Ministry of Health blames a new strain discovered in the UK last month.
Dr Itamar Grotto, co-director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health, explained: “This is because the new British variant is more contagious, especially among young people and children.”
The news that Israel’s hospitals now have a record number of serious cases of Covid comes within 24 hours of Israel starting a second dose. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday became the first to receive his second shot.
Israel is praised by the global health community for moving so fast toward vaccination. So far, nearly two million Israelis have had their first shot, out of about 9 million people. Israel has a highly centralized health care system, where everyone has to register on a digital system, which makes it easier for the Ministry of Health to organize the vaccine throughout the country.
On January 9, 2021, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive the second dose of coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
MIRIAM ALSTER | AFP | Getty Images
Despite the success of the vaccine, Israel is currently in its third nationwide exclusion due to the spread virus. Without diminishing concern about the growing percentage of young people admitted to hospital with serious infections, Grotto, an epidemiologist, points out that nearly 70% of Israelis over the age of 60 have now had their first shot, which gave them some immunity.
CNBC contributor and former FDA chief, dr. Scott Gottlieb, has been monitoring trends in Israel and Europe since the pandemic began a year ago, and uses it as a possible model for what could happen in the United States, including the relatively newly discovered British variant.
“If we can get the vaccine deployed, we can probably turn it off,” Gottlieb said, referring to the more dangerous, faster-spreading strain.
He believes the recent and worrying increase in business in the US is more related to holiday travel and events, “but the bottom line is that we do not have a sufficient oversight system to know for sure,” Gottlieb said.
The British variant, he says, is only officially responsible for 0.2% of American affairs. Gottlieb also warned that US health officials are not yet searching as carefully as they should for the increasingly dangerous tensions that are destroying an overwhelming South African health system.