Israel saw 8,800 new coronavirus cases diagnosed Wednesday - a significant drop from the 9,940 who were diagnosed Monday and 10,010 diagnosed Tuesday, the country's Health Ministry said.
As a result of the new diagnoses, Israel currently has 79,249 active cases of coronavirus around the country.
There are 1,120 coronavirus patients in hospitals, including 680 who are in serious condition, among them 186 who are in critical condition, and 135 who are intubated.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 6,909 deaths from coronavirus, including 25 on Tuesday and 13 on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, 6.57% of coronavirus test results were positive, a drop from Tuesday's 6.69%. On Wednesday, 146,849 coronavirus tests were performed.
As of Thursday morning, 5,933,086 Israelis had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and 5,459,308 of them had received the second dose as well. A full 1,772,367 of vaccinated Israelis have received a third, "booster," dose as well.
Also on Thursday, a new study was published, in which two million subjects, all members of the Clalit health fund, were followed. According to Israel Hayom, in the first part of the study, the prevalence of 25 different side effects was analyzed, both in people who were recently vaccinated and in a control group that had not been vaccinated. In the second part of the study, the same 25 side effects were compared in people who had recently contracted coronavirus to a control group that had not contracted the virus (none of whom was vaccinated).
Clalit's Professor Ran Balicer summarized the study's results, saying that among the vaccinated participants of the study, "we did not find any excess cases of myocardial infarction, stroke, or arrhythmia, or of severe blood clotting disorders such as deep vein blood clots or pulmonary embolism, but we did find these effects in those who were unvaccinated and contracted the coronavirus 'naturally.'"
Clalit’s research also measured the rate of myocardial infection in vaccinated individuals as opposed to those who contracted the virus. The results showed a rate of 2.7 cases in 100,000 for the vaccinated population, as opposed to 11 cases per 100,000 for those who contracted the coronavirus and were not vaccinated, and similar findings were reported with regard to other side effects.