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According to a report in Israel Hayom, data published today (Tuesday) shows that the hospitalization rate due to coronavirus in the Gauteng province, which also includes the city of Johannesburg - the country's largest city, has increased by 330 percent over the past two weeks.
This is a district with the lowest vaccination rate in the country, with less than 40 percent of the district's population vaccinated.
The data indicates a link between Omicron and the dramatic increase in morbidity, after a sample test of the genetic sequencing of the virus among hospitalized patients showed that almost all of them were infected with the Omicron strain.
This data also raises concerns that the initial indications that the new strain does not cause severe illness were incorrect.
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in an interview with the Financial Times tonight that existing vaccines are much less effective in combating the Omicron strain than previous strains of the coronavirus. Bancel warned that it will be months before pharmaceutical companies can produce a vaccine against the new strain.
Bansel also said that the high number of mutations in the spike protein, which the virus uses to infect human cells, and the rapid spread of the strain in South Africa, indicate that current vaccine production may need to be changed next year.
Bansal said he doesn't see the vaccine performing at the same level as it did against the Delta strain. He added: "I think it will be a substantial drop. I just don't know how much because we have to wait for the data. But all the scientists I've talked to have said, 'This is not going to be good.'".
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee discussed today the use of Shin Bet images to trace contacts of people infected with the Omicron strain.
The head of public health services, Dr. Sharon Al-Rai Price, said: "In Israel, there are 500 confirmed cases per day and their data is not sent to the Shin Bet and we are doing something focused to prevent morbidity from this variant. Once the number of people infected with the new strain exceeds a certain threshold of confirmed cases and there is community transmission, there will be no point in continuing to use this tool.".
""In our investigations, we reached 186 contacts in the investigation of the 13 suspects of infection with the variant and thanks to the technological means. Another 42 contacts were added. In other words, we see that this is a complementary and important tool.".
Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri said in the hearing: "Using emergency regulations is problematic because we enacted the Corona Law. We used the tool at the beginning of the pandemic when there was no Shin Bet law, and only when we reach the end can we use this tool. In a democratic country, the Shin Bet is not supposed to act against civilians, but only against terrorism - but there are exceptions, and this is the event we are in right now. It will not be a tool to bypass the Knesset.".
