Israel passes peak of Omicron wave: PM

Tel Aviv, Jan 31 (IANS) Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that the country is beginning to see the end of the wave of the highly infectious Omicron variant."We are seeing the beginning of a trend of stabilisation in the Omicron wave," Bennett said during a live broadcast at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.Bennett also expressed cautious optimism and said: "I choose my words carefully to avoid the 'end of semester' atmosphere, and celebrating the end of omicron is out of place," Xinhua news agency reported.He however, added that currently Israel is "dealing with congestion in the hospitals and a very large number of the infected people".The remarks came as a report issued by the Health Ministry on Sunday morning showed the coronavirus reproduction rate, known as the R number, has fallen below 1 for the first time in months.Since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, Israel has reported a total of 2,830,161 Covid-19 cases and 8,725 deaths.
--IANS ksk/

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