Omicron: ‘No need to panic’

TWO doctors tested positive for the Omicron COVID-19 variant, the Sheba Medical Centre announced on Tuesday, doubling the number of known cases of the new virus strain in Israel.

Both of the doctors work at the hospital outside of Tel Aviv and one of them had recently returned from a conference in London. That doctor then came in close contact with their colleague, likely infecting them, Sheba said, noting that both had received three doses of Pfizer’s vaccine and were only experiencing mild symptoms.

In comments made while visiting the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz insisted, “The situation is under control, there is no need for panic.

“We expected a new variant, and we’re ready … in the next few days we will have more precise information about the vaccine’s effectiveness, but early indications show that those who have a booster are most likely protected against this variant.”

Horowitz said Israel would try and lift as many of the new restrictions imposed as soon as possible.

Israel has shut its borders again, imposed mandatory quarantines and allowed the Shin Bet to resume a controversial program to track those infected.

In a video call with Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babic, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett defended closing the borders and the government’s approval of phone tracking by Shin Bet, reviving a controversial tool used earlier in the pandemic.

“Because it’s very early and there is still a lot of uncertainty, we are using drastic steps,” he said.

The two doctors join a traveller from South Africa and a tourist from Malawi as the only confirmed Omicron cases in Israel.

However, figures from the Home Front Command pointed to 34 other individuals who are also suspected to have been infected with the new variant, though the IDF unit was still waiting for confirmation from health authorities.

There were 636 new cases of all COVID variants diagnosed on Monday, bringing the total number of active cases in Israel to 5570.

At least 117 patients were in serious condition and the death toll since the start of the pandemic stood at 8195. Roughly 57 per cent of the country’s 9.4 million people is fully vaccinated, according to Health Ministry data.

The World Health Organisation on Tuesday called on countries to keep calm and take “rational, proportional risk-reduction measures” in response to the new, fast-spreading variant.

“We still have more questions than answers about the effect of Omicron on transmission, severity of disease, and the effectiveness of tests, therapeutics and vaccines,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.