ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
Updated:
Despite being previously vaccinated, some 16 elderly residents of the Neot Avi nursing home in Ashkelon tested positive for the coronavirus, Israeli media reported. The patients were evacuated by Magen David Adom to a medical center in Hadera on Thursday.
None of the infected showed symptoms of the disease, noted Maariv, The Jerusalem Post's sister publication, adding that the Health Ministry will look into the possibility of them having contracted one of the COVID-19 variants.

This news follows Israel's recent relative triumph over the virus, with experts saying the country is nearing herd-immunity.

When Israel launched its vaccination campaign back in December, the elderly were the first group to be offered the vaccine.

Prof. Cyrille Cohen, head of the immunotherapy laboratory at Bar-Ilan University, is optimistically convinced that Israel might even already be at the stage of herd immunity.

Why?

"Because even after so many openings, and Purim and Passover, the reproduction rate of the virus in Israel has remained between 0.7 and 0.8," she told the Post on Thursday.

The reproduction rate – or ‘R’ – measures how many people each virus carrier will infect. When it is lower than 1, the disease is considered in recession.

According to the Health Ministry’s latest official update, about 63% of Israel’s general population are currently immune to the coronavirus, including some 800,000 people who have officially recovered from it.

Also, as of Wednesday, Israel had not had more than 300 new daily cases for over a week. The number of total active cases stood at 3,000.

Rossella Tercatin contributed to this report.