For weeks after Cindy Pollock began planting tiny flags across her yard – one for each of the more than 1,800 Idahoans killed by COVID-19 – the toll was mostly a number. Until two women she had never met rang her doorbell in tears, seeking a place to mourn the husband and father they had just lost. Then Pollock knew her tribute, however heartfelt, would never begin to convey the grief of a pandemic that has now claimed 500,000 lives in the U.S. and counting. “I just wanted to hug them,” she said. “Because that was all I could do.” After a year that has darkened doorways across the U.S., the pandemic surpassed a milestone Monday that once seemed unimaginable, a stark confirmation of the virus’s reach into all corners of the country and communities of every size and makeup.

The doctor slid a miniature camera into the patient’s right nostril, making her whole nose glow red with its bright miniature light. “Tickles a bit, eh?” he asked as he rummaged around her nasal passages, the discomfort causing tears to well in her eyes and roll down her cheeks. The patient, Gabriella Forgione, wasn’t complaining. The 25-year-old pharmacy worker was happy to be prodded and poked at the hospital in Nice, in southern France, to advance her increasingly pressing quest to recover her sense of smell. Along with her sense of taste, it suddenly vanished when she fell ill with COVID-19 in November, and neither has returned. Being deprived of the pleasures of food and the scents of things that she loves are proving tough on her body and mind.

On the background of the tragic death of Osnat Ben-Shitrit on Motzei Shabbos, Kan News published a report based on data from Israel’s Kupot Cholim, showing that only one-third of pregnant women in Israel have been vaccinated. The report added that Israel’s Society of Obstetrics sent a letter to the Health Ministry requesting that a hotline be opened to answer the numerous questions pregnant women have on the issue. Israel’s Health Ministry has recommended that all pregnant women be vaccinated, stressing that any risks of the vaccine are outweighed by the risks to the mother and fetus. HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky has given his bracha to the measure, saying that no one should fear getting vaccinated.

Israel’s reproduction number (the number of people each carrier infects) has risen in recent days after weeks of declining, standing at 0.86 on Tuesday, the Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center reported. The reproduction number on Friday was 0.79, the lowest in months. “In the coming weeks an increase in the infection rate may be noted, due to the lifting of restrictions and the widespread British variant,” the report stated, adding that the British variant is “30-70% deadlier than the original virus.” Health officials are concerned, especially due to the fear of mass gatherings over Purim.

Two U.K. studies released Monday showed that COVID-19 vaccination programs are contributing to a sharp drop in hospitalizations, boosting hopes that the shots will work as well in the real world as they have in carefully controlled studies. Preliminary results from a study in Scotland found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduced hospital admissions by up to 85% four weeks after the first dose, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot cut admissions by up to 94%. In England, preliminary data from a study of health care workers showed that the Pfizer vaccine reduced the risk of catching COVID-19 by 70% after one dose, a figure that rose to 85% after the second. “This new evidence shows that the jab protects you, and protects those around you,” U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.

An 11-year-old girl with no pre-existing medical issues was hospitalized in serious condition in the pediatric ICU at Kaplan Hospital in Rechovot after contracting the coronavirus. She arrived at the hospital on Motzei Shabbos with severe respiratory difficulties. “At around three in the morning, I heard a scream: ‘Abba, I’m suffocating!’ her father Roi told Channel 12 News. “Her oxygen level was only 78, very low.” “We immediately called an ambulance which took her to Kaplan. There they told us that she’s suffering from pneumonia resulting from the virus.” “Her condition was really not good but this morning her condition improved and we’re hoping for the best.

The Health Ministry’s Priority Committee recommended on Motzei Shabbos that those who have recovered from the coronavirus be vaccinated with a single dose of the vaccine. The committee also recommended that the dose be administered at least three months after recovery from the virus. Until now, those who have recovered from the coronavirus have not been eligible to be vaccinated. About 400,000 Israelis have recovered from the coronavirus although it’s believed that the actual number is far higher due to the people who weren’t tested or were asymptomatic and weren’t aware they had the virus. It’s not yet clear when the vaccine will be offered to those who had recovered from the virus. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

When Dr. Mohamed Salah Siala began working on the COVID-19 front line in January in a Tunisian hospital he never imagined harnessing his music skills in the fight against the virus. Yet when the 25-year-old decided to get out his violin one day at Hedi Chaker Hospital in the city of Sfax and play, it won praise for boosting the morale of virus sufferers who remained isolated and needed a smile. The reaction of the patients was immediate — smiling, clapping and some with their fists up — celebrating the impromptu “concert.” Some were surprised to discover that it was the doctor on the fiddle. “Playing the music here contributes to the patient’s feeling of joy and to forget the pain,” said patient Rachid Arous, who is recovering from COVID-19.

Israel’s coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash gave a press briefing on Sunday night and warned that despite the lifting of restrictions on Sunday, the coronavirus is not yet over and a new variant from Uganda was recently found in Israel. Ash said that the decrease in Israel’s infection rate has continued and the reproduction number currently stands at .79. The number of seriously ill patients has also decreased. However, he added that “the number of daily cases is still very high as well as the number of seriously ill patients. We’re seeing more seriously ill young patients.

Fifty pregnant women ill with the coronavirus are currently hospitalized in Israel’s hospitals, with 10 in serious condition, 8 in critical condition, 7 ventilated, and one attached to an ECMO machine, according to Health Ministry data released on Sunday morning. The report comes on the tragic background of the petira of Osnat Ben Shitrit, 32, z’l, a pregnant woman and mother of four, who passed away on Motzei Shabbos of the coronavirus. Unfortunately, although doctors performed an emergency C-section, her baby died as well. “These are women who haven’t been vaccinated in the second half of their pregnancy, mainly in the last trimester,” said, Prof. Galia Rahav, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Sheba Medical Center, as quoted in a Ynet report.