Health Ministry Director General Professor Nachman Ash responded on Wednesday morning to reports that Israel has seen cases of a mixed Omicron subvariant coronavirus strain.
Speaking with 103 FM Radio, Prof. Ash said, "The drop in coronavirus cases is slowing, but the numbers are still going down. That does not mean necessarily that we will see a rise in the near future."
Regarding the new strain of coronavirus which was discovered in travelers arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport, Prof. Ash said, "We found a mix of Omicron with BA.2 - it's not Deltacron. We do not know what the significance of this is."
"Almost certainly, they were infected before their flight in Israel. It could be that this is a variant which was created by us."
So far, two cases of the new subvariant have been detected in Israel, both of them in travelers arriving at the airport. Both are doing well.
One of those diagnosed is a woman returning to Israel from Switzerland. According to Channel 13 News, the assumption is that she was infected in Israel, and flew after she had already contracted the virus.