The head of the public health services at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Sharon Elrai Price, said in the Knesset that there is a worrying study regarding the new mutation: "There is a suspicion that the effectiveness of vaccines against it is less good" • "The percentage of returnees from abroad -5.3 "• All details
"We have a preliminary and worrying study on the South African mutation"
Photography:
Gettyimages - Illustration
The South African Mutation: The
head of the Public Health Service, Dr Elrai Price, said this evening (Wednesday) during a discussion in the Constitution Committee: "We have a worrying preliminary study on the effectiveness of the vaccine for people suffering from the South African variant."
She added: "We are dealing with mutations that could break out as quickly as the English and those that could jeopardize the effectiveness of the vaccine so it is important to make sure that people returning from abroad stay in isolation in a hotel or in isolation with increased enforcement at home.
In this context, we want tests to be carried out at the entrance to the isolation and on the ninth day.
"3% of the circulars have a positive test on the day of entry into Israel and the rest will be positive as time goes on. In a test from today, as of the last two weeks, the number of positive circulars on the day of entry into Israel has risen from 3% to 5.3%.
She said this at a hearing in which the committee approved the extension of the declaration of isolation in hotels for returnees from abroad until January 18. The committee headed by MK Yaakov also approved the extension of the arrangement that allows for stay in home isolation subject to two corona tests, one at the entrance To Israel and the second on the ninth day of the isolation duty
The committee's chairman, MK Yaakov Asher of Torah Judaism, said: "I believe that the data of the spread are higher and even if one person enters with a mutation it justifies the continued extension of the isolation obligation."
The committee's spokesman, Dr. Adv. Gur Blay, said the justification for declaring the isolation duty was due to both the isolation violations and the data on the mutation and asked if there seemed to be an improvement in compliance with the isolation duty and if there was any further data on the mutation. There is an increase in the number of people conducting field tests to 70%.
Referring to the English variant, she said: "We know that there is a transfer in the community in Israel - 30 people were diagnosed with the British mutation - 6 of them came from England and around them there are about 200 verified from the same chain. On the other hand, the South African mutation is more troublesome. Its effect on the vaccine is not yet clear and there is a worrying preliminary study.
"The new study examined 11 cases of antibodies formed from existing vaccines and it is suspected that the effectiveness of the vaccines against it is less good. If we conclude that it is ineffective, we will ask verified people and those who have returned from South Africa to go into solitary confinement."