ByROSSELLA TERCATIN

For the first time since the pandemic began, no new local coronavirus cases were identified in Israel on Saturday, according to an update by the Health Ministry, as the number of active patients in the country dropped to 230.

All four virus carriers whose tests returned positive on Saturday were people coming from abroad.

While traveling is still far from the pre-pandemic levels, several thousand people arrive in Israel every day, mostly through Ben-Gurion International Airport.

People who enter the country are required to take a test upon arrival and – if they are not vaccinated or recovered – they can take another test to shorten the mandatory quarantine from two weeks to ten days.

While in the past few weeks only 15-20 new cases have been identified every day on average, cases coming from abroad have often come to represent a significant rate of them: on Friday, out of 30 new cases, 11 came from abroad, on Thursday two out of ten, on Wednesday seven out of 13.

During the weekend, the number of tests performed is significantly lower than on weekdays – 7,000-10,000 compared to 25,000-30,000 – but at the peak of the pandemic hundreds and sometimes thousands of cases were identified also on Saturdays.

While the current figures represent a miniscule fraction of the amount of coronavirus patients who emerged every day at the peak of the pandemic, health officials have reiterated in several occasions that their goal is to keep the coronavirus restrictions at the borders in place, while in Israel life goes back to normal.

Active cases in the country continue to drop. As of Sunday morning, they were 230. At the peak of the third wave in the winter, they reached 88,000.

In addition, only 37 patients were in serious conditions. At the peak of the pandemic, they were almost 1,200 people, placing an unprecedented pressure on the health system.