Covid-19: death record in Israel
Vaccination against the coronavirus in Tel Aviv, in July 2021 (illustration image).
© REUTERS - Ammar Awad
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
“
We did it!
Israel ranks first in the number of daily deaths from Covid-19,
” writes an Israeli daily cynically.
Yet the Jewish state is a pioneer in vaccination.
Its population is one of the best protected in the world against the coronavirus.
But in recent weeks, the country has broken records in terms of deaths.
How to explain this situation ?
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With our correspondent in Israel,
Sami Boukhelifa
.
There are in Israel, at the moment, more than forty deaths on average each day from Covid-19 for a population of nine million inhabitants.
Not since the start of the coronavirus pandemic has the country recorded such a high death rate.
But these figures must be put into perspective, explains Professor Hervé Bercovier, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: “
The mortality that we see today corresponds to the peak of cases that we reached ten years ago. days, where we had about 80,000 to 85,000 cases a day.
So if we look at the number of deaths, which currently stands at 45 deaths per day, it is
[proportionally]
lower than what we had during the other waves of coronavirus, with the Alpha or Delta variants.
»
Omicron is presented as not very aggressive
Last summer, the Delta variant caused 20 to 30 daily deaths, for 9,000 cases.
That is almost ten times fewer people infected, compared to today.
The Israeli authorities have chosen to allow the Omicron variant to circulate freely, presented as not very aggressive.
As a result, the unvaccinated minority in Israel is the hardest hit, explains Professor Bercovier: “
We have barely 20% of unvaccinated people, and they represent 50% of the mortality rate
”.
Professor Bercovier points out that 85% of deaths from Covid-19 in Israel concern people over the age of 60.
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To read also:
In the midst of the Omicron wave, Israel changes its strategy against Covid-19
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