Number of daily cases on the rise again with over 5,000 new infections diagnosed

There was a steep rise in the number of new virus cases Monday, the Health Ministry announced Tuesday morning, after two days in which daily reported infections stayed well below 5,000.

The Health Ministry said there were 5,651 cases diagnosed Monday, bringing the total to 273,826 since the start of the pandemic.

The rise was apparently the result of the number of tests conducted Monday: 52,123, a massive increase from the previous three days.

However the positivity rate remained steady at 11.4 percent.

The death toll stood at 1,771 at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, an increase of 52 fatalities since 7 a.m. Monday morning.

Israel is currently the country with the worst daily deaths per capita numbers in the world, Dr. Dror Dicker, President of the Israeli Society of Internal Medicine, noted on Channel 12 on Tuesday, citing the video below — comparing nations’ fatality rates per million — to underline the grim trend.

https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/VJN0Yu84-U4CTA3JQ

The number of new cases reached an all-time high last week of 9,053 on Wednesday, went down to 7,031 on Friday, then 2,581 on Saturday — when the numbers are always lower due to reduced testing over the weekend — and then 2,905 on Sunday, according to Health Ministry figures.

The ministry said 895 patients were in serious condition, 224 of them on ventilators. There were 316 patients in moderate condition.

Health officials had expressed “cautious optimism” in recent days that the curve of infection has begun to flatten, following several days of declining numbers of daily confirmed carriers and a drop in the “positivity rate,” the percentage of virus tests that return positive.

The IDF’s Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center reiterated its position on Tuesday that the positive test rate was still relatively high, at around 11%-12%, and indicated “a much wider scope of morbidity than actually detected,” adding that more time was needed to see if there was an actual downward trend.

Nonetheless, reports indicated that members of the so-called coronavirus cabinet discussed on Monday a Health Ministry-recommended “exit strategy” from the lockdown that would be carried out in several stages, with two weeks required between each phase, subject to public compliance and declining morbidity rates, rather than pre-determined dates.

Channel 12 News reported that any removal of restrictions was unlikely before October 18.

In a video released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, he said that while Israel is seeing infection numbers drop off, the experts recommend waiting a week to see if the trend continues.

The Health Ministry recommended carrying out a situational assessment on October 12. If the R-nought, the number of people each infected person infects, drops below 0.8, and the number of daily cases is 2,000 or lower, it recommended proceeding with the first stage of the exit strategy.

This would see businesses that do not receive customers in person allowed to open, childcare for children up to the age of 6 resume, and Ben Gurion Airport allowed to serve passengers going on business trips only, according to Channel 12.

If the R-nought rises above 0.9, then additional restrictions would be recommended.