According to the latest data, 74 percent of Israel's population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Sixty-seven percent are fully vaccinated, and 55 percent have received at least one booster dose.
This status as one of the world's most highly vaccinated and boosted countries has not prevented the country from experiencing record-breaking levels of COVID-19 infections. As of Thursday, the Israeli Ministry of Health reported 64,940 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of infections the country has had to 2,101,265.
The number of active COVID-19 cases currently stands at 409,817. The rate of positive tests from COVID-19 tests reached a record high of 18.38 percent.
The number of Israeli COVID-19 patients in hospitals rose to 1,680 on Thursday. Most are considered light or moderate cases, but 593 are considered seriously ill. Of those with serious cases, 112 are on ventilators.
A top health expert advising the Israeli government warned that the country could not sustain having between 0.6 to 0.7 percent of the population testing positive for COVID-19 each day.
Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science in central Israel noted that Israel has had the highest number of new COVID-19 cases per capita for the past seven days.
"Wherever we can make it easier for the public, we will. We are taking omicron seriously, but also looking at the bigger picture," said Minister of Health Nitzan Horowitz.
Segal noted during an interview that he believes the current post-vaccine outbreak will end soon. "We are very close to the height, or even at the height of the omicron wave," he said.
As soon as Israel reaches the peak of the current outbreak wave, Segal said as many as one in 10 Israelis will test positive for COVID-19 if they get tested. But once this peak has passed, "there will be a relatively fast decline" from those figures.
Israel expands mass vaccination program once more
The Israeli government's only response to rising cases seems to be giving its people more experimental, dangerous and ineffective COVID-19 vaccines.
Last month, the government approved giving a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to people over the age of 60 and healthcare workers who have received booster doses. (Related: IT NEVER ENDS: Israel prepares citizens to receive fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine that has already failed with THREE doses.)
Officials previously said they would wait for more data on the efficacy of a fourth dose before making it public policy to get a dose. But the Israeli Health Ministry used the arrival of the omicron variant to justify acting sooner than it originally claimed.
More recently, the Health Ministry announced on Thursday that it will offer COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to children between the ages of five and 11 who are at risk of serious illness.
This group reportedly only consists of around 1,000 children. They were also the first age group to receive the initial vaccinations last year prior to the broad approval of the vaccines.
The heads of health maintenance organizations in the country have been instructed to begin providing these children with a third dose of Pfizer's version of the vaccine designed for children.
The Israeli government is providing more vaccines to children even though cases among youths have doubled in recent days.
The latest figures show that some 146,000 school-aged children are currently quarantined because of infection, and another 142,000 are isolating due to close contact with a positive case.
Watch this video and hear the testimonies of the victims of Israel's COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
This video can be found on the KLA.TV - English channel on Brighteon.com.
Learn more about the Israeli response to the COVID-19 pandemic by reading the latest articles at Pandemic.news.
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