COVID-19 cases have filled so many Florida hospital beds that ambulance services and fire departments are straining to respond to emergencies. In St. Petersburg, some patients wait inside ambulances for up to an hour before hospitals can admit them — a process that usually takes about 15 minutes, Pinellas County Administrator Barry Burton said. While ambulances sit outside emergency rooms, they are essentially off the grid. “They’re not available to take another call, which forces the fire department on scene at an accident or something to take that transport. That’s caused quite a backlog for the system,” Burton said. He stressed that the most serious cases, like heart attacks and strokes, still get prompt attention in emergency rooms.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says people are rushing to get a third vaccine shot as protection from the surging delta variant of the coronavirus. Bennett pointed to government statistics Sunday showing that more than 420,000 Israelis older than 60 have received a booster shot, more than a third of the total targeted population. Bennett said the number is expected to grow to half a million people by the end of the day. The prime minister spoke after a weekly Cabinet meeting. Israel is seeing a rising number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, almost all of them infected with the highly contagious delta variant. The government has reinstituted its mask mandate for indoor settings and is weighing more restrictions.

Unvaccinated Israelis will not be allowed to enter the city of Hadera, the municipality announced on Thursday. The announcement stated that in order to decrease the number of daily coronavirus cases in the city, non-residents traveling to Hadera via public transportation will only be allowed to enter the city if they present a “green pass” with proof of vaccination or recovery. Israelis who have not been vaccinated or recovered from the coronavirus can only enter the city with a current negative coronavirus test. The new regulation went into effect immediately and is being enforced at bus stops near popular tourist attractions in the city such as the beach and amusement park.

A South Florida hospital chain is suspending elective surgeries and putting beds in conference rooms, an auditorium and even a cafeteria as many more patients seek treatment for COVID-19. “We are seeing a surge like we’ve not seen before in terms of the patients coming,” Memorial Healthcare System’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marc Napp said Wednesday during a news conference in Hollywood. Napp said they’ve opened up an additional 250 beds at Memorial’s six hospitals in Broward County. Unlike during last year’s spring and summer COVID surges when many sick people tried to avoid hospitals for fear of catching the virus, patients suffering from other ailments are also seeking treatment now, Napp explained.

Israel’s coronavirus cabinet approved a number of new restrictions on Tuesday night that will go into effect on Sunday, August 8. Masks will be required outdoors for gatherings of 100 people or more, 50% of government employees will work at home and the private sector will be encouraged to do the same, and parents/caretakers of children who contract the coronavirus must quarantine even if they’re vaccinated. From August 20, the Green Pass system will be expanded to all gatherings, even those less than 100 people, and unvaccinated children will be restricted from some public venues unless they can present a negative PCR test.

Researchers are trying to unravel why some COVID-19 survivors suffer “brain fog” and other problems that can last for months, and new findings suggest some worrisome overlaps with Alzheimer’s disease. One study of older adults in Argentina found a surprising amount of dementia-like changes in memory and thinking for at least six months after a bout with the coronavirus — regardless of the severity of their infection. Other researchers found Alzheimer’s-related proteins in the blood of New Yorkers whose COVID-19 triggered brain symptoms early on. The preliminary findings were reported at an Alzheimer’s Association meeting Thursday.

“It’s clear to everyone that if we don’t gain control we’ll be going to a lockdown,” a senior Health Ministry official was quoted as saying on Monday morning in a Yediot Achranot report. As Israel grapples with its fourth coronavirus wave, health experts say that another lockdown is inevitable as the continuous daily increase of coronavirus cases and seriously ill patients means that hospitals could be overloaded in a matter of weeks. The IDF’s Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center has warned that if drastic measures aren’t implemented soon, the number of seriously ill patients will skyrocket. According to sources in the ministry, if it becomes necessary to impose a lockdown it will be implemented during the Yamim Tovin in Tishrei.

New evidence showing the delta variant is as contagious as chickenpox and may be more dangerous than other versions has prompted U.S. health officials to consider changing advice on how the nation fights the coronavirus, internal documents show. Recommending masks for everyone and requiring vaccines for doctors and other health workers are among measures the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post. The documents appear to be talking points for CDC staff to use in explaining the dangers of the delta variant and “breakthrough″ infections that can occur after vaccination.

Israeli health authorities began administering coronavirus booster shots Friday to people over 60 who’ve already received both does of a vaccine, in a bid to combat a recent spike in cases. The decision was announced Thursday by the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, making Israel the first country to offer a third dose of a Western vaccine to its citizens on a wide scale. ″Israel is a pioneer in going ahead with the third dose for older people of the age of 60 and above,″ Bennett said during Friday’s launch. The decision comes following rising infections caused by the Delta variant, and indications that the vaccine’s efficacy drops over time. Bennett said that a team of expert advisers had overwhelmingly agreed that the booster campaign was necessary.

History was made on Wednesday when thanks to the transfer of a kidney from Israel to Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi to Israel, three kidney transplants were carried out on Wednesday, two in Israel and one in Abu Dhabi. At 5:30 am., the first surgery was performed at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, with doctors removing a kidney from Shani Markowitz, 39. The kidney was placed in a special cooler and rushed to Ben-Gurion Airport to be placed on a three-hour flight to Abu Dhabi. At 7:30 a.m., the next surgery took place in Abu Dhabi, with doctors removing a kidney from an Emirati woman. The kidney was rushed to the airport and flown to Israel to be transplanted in an Israeli woman at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.