COVID-19: how Israel is dealing with the omicron wave

Israel, facing a wave of COVID-19 due to the very contagious omicron variant, has decided not to confine, offer a fourth dose of vaccine and appeal to the “responsibility” of its citizens.

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

What Israeli strategy to deal with omicron?

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

This period was to allow the authorities to prepare to face the wave, encouraging the population to get vaccinated or to administer a booster dose.

But the government has not managed in this period “to develop a better testing capacity,” says this public health specialist.

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

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 confinement measures, kept bars and restaurants open for people with a vaccination pass, and stopped tracking 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.

What risks does this strategy have?

“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 measures, 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 declares.

The rise in contamination, to more than 37,000 a day, almost four times the worst moments of the crisis before omicron, has put pressure on the health system and personnel

“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, said Salman Zarka, head of the government’s anti-COVID strategy.

Will the fourth 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 as of 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.

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

Despite initial data from the Sheba hospital according to which antibodies are multiplied by five for people who recently received the fourth dose, it is necessary to wait a while to determine its effectiveness, according to Israeli experts.