According to the Times of Israel the government of Israel is considering allowing mass infections of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, as they are dealing with the fast-spreading, but milder, variant. While cases there have reached a new recent high, this has not translated “to a rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations and serious cases.”
In light of the lack of immediate rise in serious illness, Channel 12 news reported Tuesday evening that senior officials in the Health Ministry have recently raised the option of switching to a “mass infection model.”…
While that was widely seen as a failure, and Sweden then changed course, the increasing prevalence of the Omicron strain — which is more infectious than the Delta variant but causes milder illness — has led Israeli officials to mull such a move, the unsourced report said.
It said the slowed pace of child vaccination and the unwillingness to impose a lockdown or other major restrictions “don’t enable any other model.”
Officials have estimated that within two weeks, 90% of COVID-19 cases in Israel will be Omicron.
Times of Israel
Israel Today ‘s headline announced “Herd Immunity is Talk of the Day in Israel.” “The idea of letting Israelis catch COVID-19 and build up antibodies is now gaining steam amid an Omicron outbreak,” they reported.
