(Bloomberg) — Israel posted a record 11,978 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday as the omicron variant rampaged across the country, the highest tally for a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.
The number of serious cases and deaths has not exploded, however, in line with the experience of other countries. The burden on hospitals could become much more oppressive if the new daily caseload reaches 50,000 as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has warned.
The previous daily caseload high was set in early September, when there were over 11,300 infections.
Israel’s pandemic experience has been studied around the world because of aggressive steps the country took to contain the virus at the outset, its botched reopening after the first lockdown, and its early administration of vaccines and boosters. Earlier this week it became the the first country in the world to offer a fourth shot to people 60 and over amid the omicron surge.
Preliminary data from a fourth dose trial at the Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv pointed to a fivefold increase in the number of antibodies around a week after vaccination. Bennett said on Tuesday that the study suggested that the fourth dose offered a much higher level of protection against both infection and severe morbidity.
(Adds details on vaccine trial in fifth paragraph.)
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