How does Israel deal with the wave of the new omicron variant?

Israel, which is facing a wave of covid-19 due to the very contagious omicron variant, offers a fourth dose of vaccine and appeals to “responsibility” of its citizens, but declined to confine.

The Hebrew state closed its borders after the discovery in late November of the first omicron case, but reopened it on Sunday, despite authorities facing a record of contaminations in a country that was one of the first to vaccinate massively.

The Israeli strategy

In the first weeks the government closed the borders “To limit the circulation of the virus, and we did it for a month,” according to Professor Cyrille Cohen of Bar Ilan University.

This period should allow the authorities to prepare to face the wave, encouraging the population to get vaccinated or give yourself a booster dose.

But the government has failed in this period “develop better testing capacity“This public health specialist tells AFP.

The number of cases is increasing, with prognoses of two to four million cases in a population of 9 million inhabitants.

Israel reopens its borders to tourism despite registering spikes in infections

The government, estimating that the virus is already circulating in the country and that keeping the borders closed would not change anything – except penalizing the economy -, decided to reopen those borders to tourists.

The authorities have also limited containment measures, kept open bars and restaurants for people with a vaccination pass and abandoned the tracking of cases.

Today the strategy is “to transfer part of the government’s management of the crisis to the citizens” who have the responsibility to go or not to certain places, to isolate themselves if necessary or to undergo tests, explains Cohen.

The possible risks of the strategy

“Even if there were confinement we would have many cases, this is what we have seen in several countries: confinement does not prevent contamination”Emphasizes epidemiologist Hagai Levine, president of the Israeli Association of Public Health Specialists.

For him, the main risk is “political”. “By dint of changing the measurements, this creates confusion and a feeling that the government does not control the situation, which is true, because it is not possible to control it ”compared to the omicron variant, he tells AFP.

Israel bets on the fourth dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 to face the omicron variant

The rise in pollution, to more than 37,000 a day, almost four times higher than the worst moments of the crisis before omicron, has created pressure on the health system and staff

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yair Lapid, also contaminated, told public radio on Tuesday that it was asymptomatic and confined to home.

“We anticipate many contaminations in the health system and in essential sectors of the economy, and that is why we are going to study with the experts the possibility of shortening the isolation period” of contaminated people but without symptoms, Salman Zarka, chief, had indicated on Monday. of the government’s anticovid strategy.

Will the 4th dose help me cope with omicron?

Since December 2020, Israel was one of the first countries to massively vaccinate its population, and after proposing a new dose from the boreal summer.

80% of the country’s adults have two doses, and just over half have taken three doses.

But as the efficacy of the vaccine declines after several months, the government gave the green light for a fourth dose for vulnerable people.

Israel will apply fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine to people over 60 and health workers

“The 3rd dose protects against severe cases and death but is less effective against contamination. And it is still not clear if the 4th dose increases the efficacy (of the vaccine), ”says Levine.

Despite the first data from the Sheba hospital according to which they are multiplied by five antibodies for people who recently received the 4th dose, it takes a while to determine its effectiveness, according to Israeli experts. (AND)