NNA - Israel has recorded its highest-ever number of new coronavirus infections — driven by the ultra-contagious Omicron variant — despite restrictions on travel and required quarantines, the government reported on Wednesday.

The record of 11,978 cases diagnosed on Tuesday marks the most new infections reported in a single day since the start of the pandemic. The previous record was set September 2 with 11,345 new infections logged during the Delta variant’s wave.

Omicron, first detected in South Africa, is apparently more contagious but causes less cases of severe illness and death — especially among vaccinated people.

As the highly infectious Omicron variant drives the fifth wave of infections, the positive test rate on Tuesday reached 6.6 percent out of the 189,700 tests carried out.

The Health Ministry said the virus transmission number, R, indicating how many people each infected person passes on the virus too, had climbed to 1.94. The transmission rate is based on data from 10 days earlier and values above 1 show infections are spreading — the higher the number, the faster the rate.

With the number of cases rising there has also been an increase in the number of those seriously ill. Health Ministry figures showed there are now 125 patients in serious condition as of Wednesday morning, up from 117 the day before. There were 46 people defined as critical.—AP

==========R.H.