Despite its third lockdown and a number of restrictive measures implemented by the government, the daily number of new coronavirus patients in Israel continues to be alarming.
More than 3,000 new patients were registered on Sunday, and authorities have already said that the lockdown -- imposed some two weeks ago to curb the spread of the virus -- will remain intact at least until the end of the month.
On the Verge of Collapse
Meanwhile, reports suggest that Israeli hospitals are struggling to cope with the situation, and Dr. Gadi Segal, the director of Israel's first coronavirus department at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital in Central Israel, says the situation is difficult.
"It is not only the flow of patients," he says over the phone, "it is also the condition of those patients, so the numbers don't really reflect the burden our hospitals are dealing with".
In previous waves, most coronavirus patients were treated at home. Only a small fraction was admitted to hospitals across Israel.
Today Israel has 2,000 coronavirus beds and Director General of the Ministry of Health Hezi Levy has already stated that his goal was to increase that amount so that Israel would end up having 3,200 of them.
Overworked Staff
Segal says that equipment is the least of Israel's problems, as the country's medical system has long been considered one of the best in the world.
"The problem is not in beds and wards as we can easily transform other departments into COVID-19 [units]. The main challenge is staff, and particularly the lack of ICU nurses," explains Segal.
In 2018, two years before the outbreak of the pandemic, a report found that Israel had a relatively low number of doctors (3 per 1,000) and nurses (5 per 1,000) compared to other OECD countries.
That situation hasn't changed since then, but what did change was the strain currently put on the doctors, who are often forced to work 26 hours in a row to meet the demands of patients.
"Staff has been grinded for a year now. It's been challenging. But our system will not collapse. And now my hope is that the vaccines [being administered across the country] will work," Segal continues.
Israel has become the leader in the race to vaccinate its population. Since December, when the mass project kicked off, Israel has inoculated more than 2.5 million people, with 200,000 doses administered almost daily.
If this pace continues, Israel will vaccinate the majority of its nine million citizens by the end of March, unless there is a strain of the virus that proves to be resilient to the vaccine.
This is the reason why Segal believes the Israeli public should still adhere to the regulatory measures imposed by the government and has rushed to reassure that the situation, despite difficulties, remains under control.
"It is difficult to see all these patients dying," says Segal, referring to more than 4,400 people who have already lost their lives in the country because of the pandemic. "The quality and the attention we are giving to each patient is decreasing, and we are far from the standards we would like to have but we will not collapse. Our system is extremely strong and will go through this."