Israel’s Health Ministry announced on Sunday evening that four cases of the Los Angeles coronavirus variant have been identified in Israel. An Israeli living in Los Angeles who visited Israel about a month ago first brought the virus into the country. By the time he returned to his home in California, he had infected five people in the holy land. “Researchers identified a case of the Los Angeles variant in the Health Ministry’s Central Virology Laboratory,” the Health Ministry stated. “At least four other people have been confirmed to be infected with the variant.” “The incident is under investigation. The Health Ministry will continue to provide updates with additional findings as they become available.” The Los Angeles variant, known as L452R, was first identified in Denmark.

Thousands of Brazilians took the streets for a second day Sunday to call for the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under fire for his government’s handling of COVID-19, which has raged through the country and claimed more than 216,000 lives. Horn-honking cars paraded through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and a dozen or more other cities as other protesters marched on foot, some calling, “Get out Bolsonaro!” Sunday’s protests were called by conservative groups that had once backed the president, while those on Saturday had come from the left. “When Bolsonaro arrived, we voted for him for his proposals that we found interesting, but the situation now with the pandemic is terrible”, said Meg Fernandes, a 66-year-old engineer who joined a protest in Rio on Sunday.

The condition of Batsheva Baruch, a 28-year-old mother of three who was hospitalized after contracting COVID-19 in her seventh month of pregnancy, has deteriorated, Kikar H’Shabbos reported. The cholah contracted the coronavirus about a week ago and began experiencing breathing difficulties. Her condition deteriorated on Thursday and she was evacuated to Shaarei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, where her condition was designated as serious. Recently she experienced a deterioration in her condition and the doctors increased her level of respiratory assistance. Her husband Kobi tearfully told Kikar: “We have three small children who need their mother and I course need my wife.

Israeli health officials have recorded an alarming rise in the number of coronavirus cases in children and teens in the past several weeks. A total of 51,218 children and teens under the age of 18 have contracted the coronavirus since the beginning of January, of whom 138 have been hospitalized, according to data published on Sunday morning in a Yediot Achranot report. The number is staggeringly high in comparison to the number of children and teens diagnosed with the virus during the entire second wave – only 34,000. Since the beginning of January, 138 children and teens were hospitalized due to the virus, including nine in serious or critical condition, a higher number than any other month since the pandemic began.

The Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center, an advisory body operating under the IDF Military Intelligence unit in cooperation with the Health Ministry, published a report on Motzei Shabbos warning of the possibility of the development of a mutated Israeli virus variant that is resistant to vaccines. Due to the fears of the variant, the report recommends that even those who have recovered from the coronavirus or have been fully vaccinated still be tested for the virus upon entering Israel and be subject to quarantine requirements. “The mass vaccine campaign taking place in parallel with the active outbreak in Israel may lead to ‘evolutionary pressure’ on the virus leading to a mutation with a certain advantage over the vaccine,” the report stated. Dr.

Israel’s Health Ministry has confirmed that at least six pregnant women who contracted the coronavirus and subsequently were hospitalized in serious condition are carrying the British mutated variant of the virus. The ministry took samples from the ten women and out of the seven samples that have been tested for genetic sequencing, the UK variants were identified in six of them. “In light of the recent morbidity findings, pregnant women will be prioritirized regarding vaccines,” the ministry stated. “Any pregnant woman who is interested can be vaccinated. Both HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky and HaGaon HaRav Gershon Edelstein have given their brachos for pregnant women to be vaccinated.

A year ago, a notice sent to smartphones in Wuhan at 2 a.m. announced the world’s first coronavirus lockdown, bringing the bustling central Chinese industrial and transport center to a virtual standstill almost overnight. It would last 76 days. Early Saturday morning, however, residents of the city where the virus was first detected were jogging and practicing tai chi in a fog-shrouded park beside the mighty Yangtze River. Life has largely returned to normal in the city of 11 million, even as the rest of the world grapples with the spread of the virus’ more contagious variants. Efforts to vaccinate people for COVID-19 have been frustrated by disarray and limited supplies in some places. The scourge has killed more than 2 million people worldwide.

There is some evidence that a new coronavirus variant first identified in southeast England carries a higher risk of death than the original strain, the British government’s chief scientific adviser said Friday — though he stressed that the data is uncertain. Patrick Vallance told a news conference that “there is evidence that there is an increased risk for those who have the new variant.” He said that for a man in his 60s with the original version of the virus, “the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to unfortunately die.” “With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” he said. But Vallance stressed that “the evidence is not yet strong” and more research is needed.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is pushing for the closure of Ben-Gurion Airport for at least two weeks in order to prevent the entry of additional mutated coronavirus variants into Israel, Channel 12 News reported. The development follows the announcement by the UK on Friday that there is some evidence that the British virus variant may be more deadly than the original strain. Unfortunately, the facts in Israel seem to be adding to the evidence, with ten pregnant women now critically ill due to the virus (six of whom have been so far proven to be carrying the UK variant) and a surge of cases diagnosed in children, with some falling seriously ill. Furthermore, Prof.

Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem opened Israel’s first pediatric intensive care unit for coronavirus patients on Friday following the uptick in pediatric coronavirus cases in recent weeks amid the general surge in infections, Ynet reported. The eight-bed unit is unfortunately already half occupied, with three critically ill babies, all sedated and ventilated, and one baby in stable condition. The babies range in age from ten days old to two years old. Two of the seriously ill children have pre-existing health conditions, but the other two, including a 9-month-old in critical condition, were perfectly healthy prior to contracting the virus.