New Covid-19 variant detected in Israel

Israel has recorded two cases of a new Covid-19 variant, the country’s Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.

The new variant was detected during PCR tests on two passengers arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.

“This variant is still unknown around the world,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that, it will continue to closely monitor the situation.

The variant is a combination of Omicron’s dominant subvariant BA.1 and another subvariant BA.2.

“The two cases of the combined strain, which have been discovered so far, suffered from mild symptoms of fever, headaches and muscle dystrophy, and do not require a special medical response,” the ministry added.

Active Covid cases in Israel

There were 37,557 active Covid cases in the country as of Wednesday morning, with 6,310 new cases confirmed on Tuesday. As many as 10,401 people have lost their lives due to the disease since the beginning of the pandemic.

Vaccination

On the vaccination front, more than four million people have received three coronavirus vaccine shots in the country.