COVID patient at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital
COVID patient at Hadassah Ein Kerem HospitalYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

10,084 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed yesterday after 155,871 tests were performed.

The rate of positive tests yesterday was 6.6%, while the coefficient of infection rose to 0.96.

There are currently 697 coronavirus patients in serious condition, 154 of whom are on ventilators. The death toll from the coronavirus in Israel has risen to 7,338.

Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash said this morning: “We are considering changing and transferring more PCR tests to rapid tests. It's a matter of risk management - the quick tests are less sensitive. We will make the decisions in the coming days."

In an interview with Galai Tzahal, Prof. Ash referred to the morbidity data in recent days, "The coefficient of infection has decreased, but I think it will increase in the coming days. It is not certain that it reflects a decrease in morbidity - it may simply be a result of the number of tests performed."

Earlier Sunday, Prof. Galia Rahav, Director of the Infectious Disease Unit and Laboratory at Sheba Hospital, who is considered one of the top, best and most experienced physicians in Israel in the treatment of the coronavirus, warned that hospitals are not able to provide the necessary care for patients who are on ventilators in coronavirus wards.

"I've been crying for the last few days, and I'm already feeling like Don Quixote, but the mortality from Corona now is unbearable and very severe. There are not enough intensive care beds for intubated corona patients. I am called for a lot of counseling, and some of the corona wards in the hospitals do not know enough to care for intubated patients. Patients who have not been given the chance to live, die because there are not enough beds and intensive care staff. I see it in a lot of hospitals. It hurts the heart," Prof. Rahav told Israel Hayom.

She said, "I have had hours of wars to transfer intubated coronavirus patients and in critical condition to intensive care units, and any such struggle is heartbreaking. I struggled, for example, to transfer to intensive care a young patient who had moved to Tel Hashomer connected to an ECMO machine and who is now in rehabilitation. If she had not been transferred, her chances of survival would have been very low. Even without the coronavirus, there is a catastrophe in the inpatient wards, with a shortage of intensive care beds, but now it's all happening at once - it's heartbreaking."

Prof. Rahav added that "60-70% of severely ill patients are not vaccinated, but intensive care units want to treat younger patients who are mostly unvaccinated - and in some cases take the places of vaccinated patients, who are mostly older, and that's very outrageous."