Israel Sees Record-High Daily Infections, Hints at Fourth Vaccine Dose

Highly vaccinated Israel recorded the highest number of daily CCP virus infections per capita this week as the country’s health ministry announced that on average, more than 10,700 new COVID-19 cases are being reported each day.

Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash said during a video call on Sept. 14 that the new figures are “a record that did not exist in the previous waves,” The Times of Israel reported.

“A week ago we were in a clear downward trend—in recent days we’ve been seeing that decline stop, and the virus reproduction number is [again] above 1,” Ash said. Values “above 1” indicate that the number of cases is increasing, while “below 1” means it’s shrinking.

Although positive cases are on the rise again, people who fell seriously ill from COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, declined compared to the numbers of previous weeks. Ash noted that on average, people who fell seriously ill increased daily by around 70 to 80 new patients.

Israel, which has mainly used the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech vaccine, has so far fully inoculated about 5.56 million people, or 61.45 percent, according to data by Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.

Last week, Ash said the number of people who have not received any vaccine dose yet has fallen to less than one million. Israel has a population of 9.3 million people.

The country began offering COVID-19 booster shots to children as young as 12 on Aug. 29, and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said a campaign that began in July among seniors has slowed a rise in severe illness caused by the Delta variant. Currently, about 2.7 million Israelis have accepted the booster vaccine.

HERE's THE REASON:

Pfizer Says COVID-19 Vaccine Efficacy Weakens Over Time

[EXCERPT]

Pfizer recently stated that data from Israel and the United States suggests that its COVID-19 vaccine efficacy drops over time and claimed that booster doses are effective at dealing with new virus variants.

Federal health officials announced two weeks ago a target date of Sept. 20 to try to roll out booster shots for the general public, although a recent study from several top scientists at the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that the general population doesn’t need a booster dose.

“Real-world data from Israel and the United States suggest that rates of breakthrough infections are rising faster in individuals who were vaccinated earlier in the vaccination campaigns compared to those who have been vaccinated more recently,” Pfizer stated during its presentation this week, which was posted on the FDA website.

And the evidence from the studies indicates that the “observed decrease of vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 infections is primarily due to waning of vaccine immune responses over time rather than a result of the Delta variant escaping vaccine protection,” according to Pfizer.

Based on its data, Pfizer claimed that booster doses should be given to all people aged 16 and older six months after they’ve received their second dose of the mRNA vaccine.

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