Coronavirus testing in Jerusalem
Coronavirus testing in JerusalemOlivier Fitoussi/Flash90

A total of 209 new cases of the coronavirus were diagnosed across Israel Thursday, according to data released by the Health Ministry Friday morning.

Just 0.5% of tests conducted Thursday came back positive, holding at the same rate as Tuesday and Wednesday. That is the lowest level recorded since May 24th last year, when the percentage of tests coming back positive hit 0.4%.

There are now just 4,414 known active cases of the virus in Israel, down from 4,888 on Wednesday. Of those 4,414 active cases, 429 are being treated in hospitals. That is down from 481 COVID hospitalizations on Wednesday

Of those 429 hospitalizations, 276 patients are in serious condition. That is down from 281 seriously ill patients on Thursday and 302 on Wednesday, and marks the lowest number since November 30th of this year, when there were 272 patients in serious condition.

Infection coefficient held steady at 0.76 as of March 29th, 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 down from 0.79 two days before, and 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 6,280, including five deaths Tuesday.

Thus far, 5,304,870 Israelis have received at least one dose of the vaccine, or 57.05% of the population, with 52.82% of, or 4,911,808 people having received two doses.