Israel’s Health Ministry has confirmed that at least six pregnant women who contracted the coronavirus and subsequently were hospitalized in serious condition are carrying the British mutated variant of the virus. The ministry took samples from the ten women and out of the seven samples that have been tested for genetic sequencing, the UK variants were identified in six of them. “In light of the recent morbidity findings, pregnant women will be prioritirized regarding vaccines,” the ministry stated. “Any pregnant woman who is interested can be vaccinated. Both HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky and HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein have given their brachos for pregnant women to be vaccinated.

A year ago, a notice sent to smartphones in Wuhan at 2 a.m. announced the world’s first coronavirus lockdown, bringing the bustling central Chinese industrial and transport center to a virtual standstill almost overnight. It would last 76 days. Early Saturday morning, however, residents of the city where the virus was first detected were jogging and practicing tai chi in a fog-shrouded park beside the mighty Yangtze River. Life has largely returned to normal in the city of 11 million, even as the rest of the world grapples with the spread of the virus’ more contagious variants. Efforts to vaccinate people for COVID-19 have been frustrated by disarray and limited supplies in some places. The scourge has killed more than 2 million people worldwide.

There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday — though he stressed that the data is uncertain. Patrick Vallance told a news conference that “there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those who have the new variant.” He said that for a man in his 60s with the original version of the virus, “the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die.” “With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” he said. But Vallance stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong” and more research is needed.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is pushing for the closure of Ben-Gurion Airport for at least two weeks in order to prevent the entry of additional mutated coronavirus variants into Israel, Channel 12 News reported. The development follows the announcement by the UK on Friday that there is some evidence that the British virus variant may be more deadly than the original strain. Unfortunately, the facts in Israel seem to be adding to the evidence, with ten pregnant women now critically ill due to the virus (six of whom have been so far proven to be carrying the UK variant) and a surge of cases diagnosed in children, with some falling seriously ill. Furthermore, Prof.

Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem opened Israel’s first pediatric intensive care unit for coronavirus patients on Friday following the uptick in pediatric coronavirus cases in recent weeks amid the general surge in infections, Ynet reported. The eight-bed unit is unfortunately already half occupied, with three critically ill babies, all sedated and ventilated, and one baby in stable condition. The babies range in age from ten days old to two years old. Two of the seriously ill children have pre-existing health conditions, but the other two, including a 9-month-old in critical condition, were perfectly healthy prior to contracting the virus.

The Mea Shearim-based Chareidi home hospitalization organization Chasdei Amram that provides medical treatment for coronavirus patients at home, is facing a dire crisis due to a severe shortage of doctors, Yisrael Hayom reported. The organization has made an urgent appeal to the Health Ministry to allow them to bring in doctors from other countries, funded by anonymous donors. However, at least at the moment, it appears that the plan will not come to fruition due to the opposition of an anti-piracy medical group. The infection rate in Jerusalem is rising, especially in the Chareidi sector, with about 1,000 new virus patients every day – half of them from the Chareidi sector. “The situation is catastrophic,” one of the organization’s representatives told Yisrael Hayom.

The push to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus is hitting a roadblock: A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled. The full explanation for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand was unclear, but last week the U.S. Health and Human Services Department suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way. The shortages are coming as states dramatically ramp up their vaccination drives, at the direction of the federal government, to reach people 65 and older, along with other groups deemed essential or at high risk. More than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. have been blamed on the virus.

A senior Israeli health official said on Wednesday that following a surge of virus cases among children, vaccinating them must be a priority in order to reach herd immunity, Ynet reported. Health officials say that the highly infectious British and South African variants are behind the increased morbidity rate in children and teenagers. Furthermore, although most children are asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms, there has been a rise in young seriously ill patients. The rapid spread of the new variants among children is a worldwide phenomenon. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that new variants “spread faster among children rather than the elderly.” “We noticed increased infection among children,” said Dr.

A panel of experts commissioned by the World Health Organization has criticized China and other countries for not moving to stem the initial outbreak of the coronavirus earlier and questioned whether the U.N. health agency should have labeled it a pandemic sooner. In a report issued to the media Monday, the panel led by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said there were “lost opportunities” to set up basic public health measures as early as possible. “What is clear to the panel is that public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities in China in January,” shortly after the coronavirus began sickening clusters of people, it said.

Masks off the minute you step inside. Bars packed and pulsing like it’s 2019. Social media stars waving bottles of champagne. DJs spinning party tunes through multi-hour brunches. Since becoming one of the world’s first destinations to open up for tourism, Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, has promoted itself as the ideal pandemic vacation spot. It cannot afford otherwise, analysts say, as the virus shakes the foundations of the city-state’s economy. With its cavernous malls, frenetic construction and legions of foreign workers, Dubai was built on the promise of globalization, drawing largely from the aviation, hospitality and retail sectors — all hard hit by the virus. Now reality is catching up to the big-dreaming emirate.