Omicron scare: Israel health official says COVID spike can bring herd immunity with risk

Amid soaring cases of the new COVID variant, Omicron, Israel's top health adviser said the country has reached COVID herd immunity. According to a report by BBC, director of the Ministry of Health, Nachmann Ash said the nation would pay a price for this. The director said he wanted to see herd immunity achieved via vaccinations instead. He anticipated the country would witness up to four million infections by the end of this month. Notably, herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from infectious diseases that can occur with some diseases when a sufficient portion of a population has become immune to infection. The immunity can be achieved through previous infections or vaccination thereby, reducing the likelihood of infection for individuals who lack immunity. 

"The price of herd immunity is very infections, and that may end up happening. The numbers need to be high to reach herd immunity, it's possible," BBC quoted Nachman Ash as saying.

"But we don't want to reach it through infections, we want it to happen as a result of many people vaccinating," he added. 

Israel approves fourth vaccine shot for elderly and health staff

According to data released by Israel Health Ministry, the country has soared nearly four times in ten days, however, the number of deaths has not seen a similar trend. Meanwhile, while addressing a press conference on Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett acknowledged his current approach will not stop a big rise in infections. It is worth mentioning the country has recently approved the inoculation of the fourth COVID vaccine to people over 60 and the health care staff involved in the fight against the highly-infectious virus. 

Notably, Israel began testing the fourth dose at the centre earlier this week, administering it to 150 medical staff who had already taken a booster shot in August. Almost a year ago, Israel was one of the first countries to roll out Pfizer's vaccine and began administering booster doses last summer. However, the country still witnesses a large number of cases fueled by the Delta variant and the officials have warned of another surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant. Earlier, the Prime Minister had assured his government would not invoke any strict measures in order to keep the economic activities on track. 

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