A medical staff member attends a patient suffering from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in a ward at Beilinson hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel August 18, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

i24 News – The number of serious coronavirus cases dropped on Monday, even as daily infections continue to increase amid the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Israel, the latest Health Ministry data reveals.

A total of 87 patients were hospitalized in severe condition on Monday morning, representing a decline of nine compared to the previous day’s tally. Three new severe patients were added on Monday versus 13 on Sunday.

Out of the 87 total patients with serious illness, 47 were critical and 38 on ventilators.

The highly infectious omicron variant is currently circulating in Israel. Early indications are that the heavily mutated strain of Covid-19 displays milder symptoms compared to the delta variant, although experts caution that omicron still has the potential to overwhelm health care systems because it is so contagious even if less severe.

The latest reproduction number, or R value, is 1.41, indicating that the virus is spreading.

The number of new daily cases registered on Monday was 1,760 with a positive test rate of 1.87 percent, a decline from Sunday’s positivity rate which rose above 2 percent.

There are currently 13,053 active patients with the coronavirus in Israel.

A total of 9,808 people have died from the disease in Israel since the pandemic started.

Over 4.2 million people in Israel have received all three available vaccine doses against the virus.