Updated: 29 May 2021
The main thrust of the vaccination programme is over. With more than 5.1 million fully vaccinated and another 300,000 having had their first shot, every adult who wants a vaccination has had one.
With children still to be vaccinated and some evidence that, not only are they less likely to develop Covid symptoms, but that there may be more severe potential side effects for young people from vaccines, the Health Ministry is considering the possibility of only giving children one shot of a vaccine rather than two.
One major concern over Covid-19 has been the effects of the virus on the respiratory system. It is, therefore, highly encouraging to see the early clinical results on Covid patients with lung inflammation using a drug developed by Israeli company Bonus Biogroup. The first ten patients treated with Mesencure saw a dramatic and rapid reduction in inflammation, with a median time of just over a day before the patients could be released from hospital and the inflammation having almost vanished within a month.
For the first time in over a year, organised tour groups are able to visit Israel, with a group of theology students from Missouri being the first to take advantage, when they arrived on Thursday. Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen was on the spot to welcome them, and express her hopes that many more will soon follow.
While the Israeli tourism industry has taken a battering over the last year, there is much better news for the country's high successful technology industry which is going through something of a boom thanks to investors keen to profit from the increasing digitalisation of business which has been turbo-charged by the lockdown.
Meanwhile, Jewish author Alexandra Zapruder, whose most famous work Salvaged Pages features the diaries kept by young Jewish people during the Holocaust, has created the inspirational Dispatches from Quarantine project, recording young people's experiences of the pandemic using a range of media. Whilst being careful to avoid comparing the pandemic to the Holocaust, Zapruder has identified that we are living through a major historical event and that young people can make a "meaningful contribution... to the historical record."
With infection rates now very low, Israel has fallen to 23rd place for the number of coronavirus tests per million people (1,573,778), 13 places below the UK (2,660,558). This compares to the disputed territories in 94th place (349,817).
Since our last report, Israel has fallen to 19th place in the list of cases of coronavirus per million people (90,012), still well above the UK in 50th (65,694) and the disputed territories falling again to 60th (59,107).
Israel has fallen to 63rd place for deaths per million people (687 per million). The UK has fallen two more places to 17th, with 1,873 deaths per million, still far higher than Israel: a testament to the heroes of Magen David Adom and all those involved in the Israeli health system. Also impressive is the statistic for the disputed territories, with only 670 deaths per million people despite a slight rise to 64th place in the list. Both Israelis and Palestinians therefore remain much less likely to die of Covid-19 than the frequency of confirmed cases would suggest, whereas people in the UK are much more likely to die.
The main thrust of the vaccination programme is over. With more than 5.1 million fully vaccinated and another 300,000 having had their first shot, every adult who wants a vaccination has had one.
With children still to be vaccinated and some evidence that, not only are they less likely to develop Covid symptoms, but that there may be more severe potential side effects for young people from vaccines, the Health Ministry is considering the possibility of only giving children one shot of a vaccine rather than two.
One major concern over Covid-19 has been the effects of the virus on the respiratory system. It is, therefore, highly encouraging to see the early clinical results on Covid patients with lung inflammation using a drug developed by Israeli company Bonus Biogroup. The first ten patients treated with Mesencure saw a dramatic and rapid reduction in inflammation, with a median time of just over a day before the patients could be released from hospital and the inflammation having almost vanished within a month.
For the first time in over a year, organised tour groups are able to visit Israel, with a group of theology students from Missouri being the first to take advantage, when they arrived on Thursday. Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen was on the spot to welcome them, and express her hopes that many more will soon follow.
While the Israeli tourism industry has taken a battering over the last year, there is much better news for the country's high successful technology industry which is going through something of a boom thanks to investors keen to profit from the increasing digitalisation of business which has been turbo-charged by the lockdown.
Meanwhile, Jewish author Alexandra Zapruder, whose most famous work Salvaged Pages features the diaries kept by young Jewish people during the Holocaust, has created the inspirational Dispatches from Quarantine project, recording young people's experiences of the pandemic using a range of media. Whilst being careful to avoid comparing the pandemic to the Holocaust, Zapruder has identified that we are living through a major historical event and that young people can make a "meaningful contribution... to the historical record."
With infection rates now very low, Israel has fallen to 23rd place for the number of coronavirus tests per million people (1,573,778), 13 places below the UK (2,660,558). This compares to the disputed territories in 94th place (349,817).
Since our last report, Israel has fallen to 19th place in the list of cases of coronavirus per million people (90,012), still well above the UK in 50th (65,694) and the disputed territories falling again to 60th (59,107).
Israel has fallen to 63rd place for deaths per million people (687 per million). The UK has fallen two more places to 17th, with 1,873 deaths per million, still far higher than Israel: a testament to the heroes of Magen David Adom and all those involved in the Israeli health system. Also impressive is the statistic for the disputed territories, with only 670 deaths per million people despite a slight rise to 64th place in the list. Both Israelis and Palestinians therefore remain much less likely to die of Covid-19 than the frequency of confirmed cases would suggest, whereas people in the UK are much more likely to die.