Health authorities around the U.S. are increasingly taking the extraordinary step of allowing nurses and other workers infected with the coronavirus to stay on the job if they have mild symptoms or none at all. The move is a reaction to the severe hospital staffing shortages and crushing caseloads that the omicron variant is causing. California health authorities announced over the weekend that hospital staff members who test positive but are symptom-free can continue working. Some hospitals in Rhode Island and Arizona have likewise told employees they can stay on the job if they have no symptoms or just mild ones. The highly contagious omicron variant has sent new cases of COVID-19 exploding to over 700,000 a day in the U.S. on average, obliterating the record set a year ago.

Aviran Yael fetched rapid antigen kits from a pharmacy in Tel Aviv’s busy center, placed them in the light blue bag strapped to the back of his motorbike and headed off to deliver them. With that, Yael on Monday joined a growing army of couriers toting Wolt delivery boxes around Israel, a sight that has become ubiquitous in the three years since the Finnish company began operating here. The payload in the blue boxes changed when the Israeli government last week authorized more at-home testing to take the burden off of testing centers. Almost immediately, as the omicron coronavirus variant set infection records, rapid antigen tests became the platform’s most in-demand product — even more than food, its core delivery business, officials said.

Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash on Tuesday evening announced that the quarantine period for Israelis with COVID has been shortened to seven days from ten, as long as they are asymptomatic for the last three days of the seven-day period. Ash said that a study carried out by the ministry on Omicron carriers showed that there was only a 6% chance that they were still carrying the live virus after seven days. The new policy goes into effect on Wednesday night at midnight. The policy follows many complaints by business owners that the huge amount of Israelis in lockdown due to carrying the virus or being exposed to it has created a de facto lockdown.

Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for people on their plans. The Biden administration announced the change Monday as it looks to lower costs and make testing for the virus more convenient amid rising frustrations. Under the new policy, first detailed to the AP, Americans will be able to either purchase home testing kits for free under their insurance or submit receipts for the tests for reimbursement, up to the monthly per-person limit. A family of four, for instance, could be reimbursed for up to 32 tests per month. PCR tests and rapid tests ordered or administered by a health provider will continue to be fully covered by insurance with no limit.

The majority of Israelis are disgruntled with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government management of the COVID crisis, a Channel 12 News survey on Sunday found. The poll showed that 63% of the public thinks that Bennett’s management of the fifth COVID wave is “bad.” An even higher percentage, 65%, think that Education Minister Yifa Shasha-Biton, who has been accused of being a COVID denier and has repeatedly clashed with Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz over COVID policies, is failing in her role. The worst rating, 66% disapproval, was earned by Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who refuses to consider compensating businesses for losses due to COVID issues.

Israel’s Health Ministry on Monday issued new guidelines for COVID testing with antigen tests. The tests should be carried out three days after contact with a confirmed COVID carrier since it’s been found that earlier tests produce many false negatives. Additionally, users should first swab their throat and then their nostril (with the same swab), and not just their nostrils as the instructions say. According to Dr. Nadav Sorek, the head of the epidemiology lab at Assuta Hospital in Ashdod, it’s also recommended to take repeated tests. “Repeated tests will succeed in detecting the virus since at some point the virus load will be high enough that an antigen test will be able to detect it,” he said.

In what is becoming a daily occurrence, Israel reached a new record high number of coronavirus cases on Monday, with the Health Ministry confirming 21,501 cases among those who took PCR tests and another 10,000 who took antigen tests. The test positivity rate also increased, standing at 13.3% on Monday. The number of seriously ill patients rose to 224 and the number of fatalities increased by 10, to 8,269. There are currently 19 pregnant women and new mothers hospitalized with COVID, including one who is attached to an ECMO machine. The majority of cities in Israel are currently “red.” Abou 2,6500 medical personnel are currently in quarantine, of whom almost 2,000 tested positive for COVID. Health Ministry Director-General Prof.

Following the report that Rosh Yeshivas Ponevezh, HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein tested positive for COVID on Sunday morning, dozens of other Roshei Yeshivos and mashgichim in Israel have been diagnosed with COVID. On Monday, Rosh Yeshivas Ponevezh, HaGaon HaRav Baruch Dov Povarsky, 90, tested positive as well as Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, HaGaon HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, and Rosh Yeshivas Beis Shmuel and Rav of Kiryat Mattesdorf, Rav Yitzchok Yechiel Ehrenfeld.

As predicted by public health experts, Israel is recording a record number of new daily coronavirus cases, with the Health Ministry reporting 17,521 cases in the previous 24 hours, an especially alarming number for a Sunday since the number of people who test over the weekend is generally lower. Even more alarming is the sharp increase in the number of seriously ill patients. There are currently 523 hospitalized COVID patients, out of whom 208 are seriously ill – more than double the number from just a week ago. The seriously ill patients include 68 who are critically ill, with 16 patients attached to ECMO machines and 48 ventilated. The positivity rate is 11.71%, the highest since October 2020. There are currently 115,010 active COVID cases in Israel.

Prof. Ron Balicer, the head of the Health Ministry’s pandemic response team, said that millions of Israelis will contract the Omicron COVID variant, which means that the number of hospitalizations will soar despite the variant being less virulent than previous ones. In an interview with Yisrael Hayom on Motzei Shabbos, Prof. Balicer said: “In recent weeks we’ve learned that Omicron behaves fundamentally differently than previous strains. The differences between it and the Delta variant are greater than the differences between Delta and Alpha and the other strains. It has various mechanisms for entering the cell and operates differently at the cellular level.