A total of 229 new cases of the coronavirus were diagnosed across Israel Saturday, according to data released by the Health Ministry Sunday evening.

Just 1.3% of tests conducted Saturday came back positive, up slightly from 1.1% of tests carried out Friday.

There are now just 9,608 known active cases of the virus in Israel, of which 669 are being treated in hospitals. That is down from 11,708 known cases and 694 COVID hospitalizations on Friday.

Of those 669 hospitalizations, 468 patients are in serious condition.

Infection coefficient rose to 0.60 as of March 17th, the latest date for which information on the coefficient is available due to the 10-day delay between the date of actual infection and test results. That is up from 0.59 the day before, but remains far below the 1.0 R reproduction rate, which marks the level of spread needed for the virus to maintain a stable number of infections in a population.

The infection coefficient last topped 1.0 on February 24th, when it hit 1.02, before falling sharply.

The total number of coronavirus-related fatalities now stands at 6,183, including five deaths Saturday and two Sunday.

Thus far, 5,220,509 Israelis have received at least one dose of the vaccine, or 56.14% of the population, with 50.66% of, or 4,710,716 people having received two doses.