COVID in Israel: Daily Cases Hit New Record, but Serious Cases Decline

Israel reported its highest number of daily COVID infections since the pandemic began on Thursday, though serious cases continued to tail off amid growing momentum with the rollout of the third vaccine dose.

The Health Ministry data revealed that there were 11,187 new infections on Wednesday, an increase of 1,755 from the previous day. The previous record throughout the pandemic was on Monday, with 11,140.

However, serious cases fell for the third consecutive day. In total, 666 patients were in serious condition, with 208 in critical condition and 149 on life support. There are currently 90,058 active carriers of the virus, with 7.92 percent of tests coming back positive.

According to Health Ministry data, the R number, which indicates how many people are infected by a carrier of the virus on average, has risen to 1.09 from Wednesday's 1.07.

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On Wednesday, 83,315 people took their third dose of the vaccine, taking the total number who have received third shots to 2,350,440. In total, 5,494,230 people have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.