Despite being in the midst of a third national lockdown, daily coronavirus infections have crossed the 9,000 mark for three days in a row, Israel’s Health Ministry reported on Thursday.
It recorded 9,388 new cases on Wednesday, following an all-time record of 9,700 on Monday.
Israel’s coronavirus czar Nachman Ash said that a tightened lockdown that took effect one week ago and initially approved for two weeks, would likely need to be extended by another week.
“The numbers are high, but the lockdown I think does have an impact. I hope that in the coming days we’ll see the beginning of a decline. That of course takes time,” Ash told ynet, the online version of Israel’s biggest-selling Yediot Ahronot daily.
“My estimation is that we will have to extend the lockdown by another week,” said the internal medicine professor.
A condition was a decline in newly confirmed cases as well as in serious cases, which currently stands at 1,063.
Israel, a country of over 9 million inhabitants, has seen 3,826 Covid-19 related deaths since the novel virus reached its borders one year ago.
Nearly 2 million Israelis have thus far received the first dose of the US-German Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine since the country launched the biggest vaccination campaign in its history on December 19.
Israel hopes that in addition to the current lockdown measures, its swift vaccination campaign will soon result in a dip in the caseload.
According to the research website Our World in Data, Israel is the world leader in the number of vaccinated people per capita.