Israel Sees Record New COVID-19 Cases, Approaching 20,000 Daily

Israel on Thursday reported 19,418 new COVID-19 cases, its highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic, raising its total tally to 1.45 million cases, according to its Health Ministry. The number of new confirmed cases in Israel has grown more than 620% over the past two weeks as the omicron variant spreads rapidly throughout the population. Israel’s effective reproduction rate (R), the average number of new infections caused by a single infected individual now stands at 2.13. Record numbers of cases were also recorded in recent days in Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Turkey, and Qatar, among MENA countries, and in many countries outside of the region, including Canada, France, the UK, and the United States.