7% of Israel's serious COVID cases had three vaccine shots - Health Ministry

• Published date: 09 October 2021
• Author: MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

However, the number of new daily cases is declining and the government voted to roll out the Green Class outline in several green cities on Sunday to help keep children out of isolation.

"I cannot say that 7% is a lot," Health Minister Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash told The Jerusalem Post. "The vaccine, even the third shot, does not work at 100%. It is 95% effective."

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He said that there are also always a small percentage of people for whom the vaccine does not work as well, such as those who are immunosuppressed.

More than three million Israelis have been fully vaccinated with two shots and a booster. There were around 460 serious and critical cases on Friday, so 7% is around 32 people, meaning less than 0.00001% of people who have had a third shot are in serious condition.

"This is even better than we could have expected," Ash said.

Another 17% were vaccinated with two shots more than six months ago, according to the data.

The majority (71%) were unvaccinated. The rest were recovered (3%), vaccinated and got sick before a full week had passed (2%) or recovered and vaccinated (1%).

Some 6.1 million Israelis have had a first shot, 5.7 million two shots and 3.7 million all three shots.

In general, the virus seems to be declining even as children have returned to school after the holidays. However, the number of patients connected to life-saving heart-lung ECMO machines is at a peak, with close to 60 people being connected last week, according to Ash.

He said 90% of ECMO cases are unvaccinated and under the age of 60 - 20% are under the age of 40.

One young man, a 16-year-old teen, who had been diagnosed with post-COVID syndrome (pediatric inflammatory multi-system syndrome or PIMS) died Saturday morning at Schneider Children's Medical Center. He is believed to be the first Israeli to die from the rare condition.

The teen, identified by Israeli media as Aden Jamal Fayumi from Jaljulia, was unvaccinated.

He had been transferred to Schneider from Meir Medical Center about 12 days ago and connected to the ECMO machine for 10 days.

PIMS is still considered rare. Around 100 Israeli children are known to have been diagnosed with post-COVID syndrome, but around half of these cases have been during the Delta wave.

"I think we are seeing a rise in PIMS in recent weeks," Schneider's Dr. Ofer Schiller said in a video message...