A spokesman for the prime minister said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s daughter has tested positive for the coronavirus, and will enter quarantine.
According to the spokesperson, the prime minister skipped Sunday’s cabinet meeting at the Golan Heights and will self-isolate, isolated from his daughter, until she receives a negative PCR test. Bennett took a rapid antigen test before attending the meeting and tested negative.
The 14-year-old daughter was vaccinated for COVID-19 in June.
Earlier on Sunday, the Prime Minister’s Office said that one of its employees was found positive for coronavirus in the rapid tests required for all attendees ahead of the meeting.
The spokesperson said the employee was immediately put under quarantine, and did not come in contact with the prime minister or any other minister. Other employees who came in contact with the infected person tested negative for the virus but were excluded from the cabinet meeting as a precaution.
Education Minister Yifat Shasha-bitan also entered quarantine after his daughter tested positive for COVID-19.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visiting Katzrin in northern Israel on the issue of connecting the Golan Heights capital with new fiber optics infrastructure for high-speed connectivity on December 26, 2021. (Michael Gilady/Flash 90)
Government and health officials have warned that the highly contagious Omicron variant is triggering a new, fifth wave of infections, with expected case numbers Growth Fast forward to the coming weeks.
As of Saturday, there were 1,118 confirmed cases of Omicron in Israel since the strain was first identified.
Bennett is urging parents to vaccinate their children to prevent the expected increase in morbidity from Omicron.
At least 5,905 Israelis received their first dose of the vaccine on Friday, most of them between the ages of 5 and 11 – a group that recently became eligible for vaccination.
At least 14 percent of 185,000 children aged 5-11 — have been vaccinated with at least one dose. Bennett had sought to vaccinate half a million children by the end of December, but admitting parents has been delayed.
As authorities try to stop the spread of the virus, new rules for the education system came into force. In communities listed as “red” or “orange”, classes for grades 7–12 were only being allowed to take place in person if 70% of students had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Under Israel’s “traffic light” scheme, each municipality is assigned a score between 0 and 10 based on a number of factors, including the number of new cases per 10,000 residents, the rate of positive tests in each city, and the number of cases. Including the rate of growth. New patients in each city Each locality is awarded a common colour, as well as a different classification for the education system.
For the first time since October 7, the positive test rate on Sunday surpassed two per cent of confirmed infections with COVID-19, according to health ministry data.
Of the 44,538 virus tests conducted on Saturday, 2.07% returned positive. The fertility rate, or “R” number, also continued to rise slowly, reaching 1.41 after peaking at 1.02 in early December.
The transmission rate is based on data from 10 days ago, with any value above 1 indicating that the infection rate is increasing. The last time it hit such a high was given as 1.42 on July 10, in the midst of Israel’s fourth wave of infections from the delta strain.
The number of critically ill patients continues to rise with speed, reached 98 on Sunday, to match the level two weeks ago. Of these, the condition of 45 people was critical, 18 were on ECMO machines and 39 were on ventilator.
Although testing volumes drop over the weekend, 760 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed on Saturday, bringing the total number of active cases to 11,894 on Sunday.