The coronavirus infection coefficient continues to fall, along with the number of new cases and the number of serious cases, Israel's Health Ministry reported Tuesday morning.
According to the Ministry, 43,852 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed Monday, representing 24.1% of test results and bringing the number of active cases nationwide to 318,291. Though it is commonly believed that those who recovered from coronavirus are immune, the number of recovered individuals contracting Omicron is steadily and steeply rising, and now stands at 6.47% of reported cases.
As of Monday morning, 2,812 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized. As of Tuesday morning, the number had dropped to 2,687. This number includes 1,161 patients in serious condition, among them 355 whose condition is critical. Both of those figures represent a drop from Monday.
Initially reported as 20, the Ministry updated Sunday's death toll from COVID-19 to 34. Monday's death toll is currently 23, but the number may change as additional reports come in. As of this writing, 9,226 coronavirus-positive patients have died since the start of the pandemic.
And while the number of intubated COVID-19 patients dropped from 293 on Monday to 288 on Tuesday, the number of patients on ECMO (heart and lung) machines rose from 20 on Monday to 21 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the infection coefficient for January 28, the last day for which the information is available, has now dropped to 0.82 - a steady fall from its 1.41 just one month ago. At the same time, it is not clear how much of the drop is due to a decrease in infections, and how much is due to a lack of testing and failure to report positives received on home antigen tests.