‘Vaccination blunts, but does not defeat’: exploring Israel’s fourth Covid wave

Two months ago, face masks were consigned to bins. Now the country is in a ‘unique moment of epidemiological doubt’

A health worker takes a swab sample for Covid-19 rapid antigen testing in Tel Aviv on 24 August 2021
A health worker takes a swab sample for Covid-19 rapid antigen testing in Tel Aviv on 24 August 2021
(Image credit: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Two months ago, Israel was basking in the success of one of the world’s fastest vaccine roll-outs. Masks were consigned to bins, and Covid restrictions looked like a thing of the past. No longer, said Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz (Tel Aviv). Today, the country is in a “unique moment of epidemiological doubt”.

Fuelled by the spread of the Delta variant, new Covid cases have reached their highest levels in six months. And, despite 78% of adults having been double jabbed (about the same as in the UK), hospitalisations, serious illnesses and deaths have been “rising for the past seven weeks” – and are forecast to continue doing so for weeks to come.

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