45 students get coronavirus; above Israeli average

Forty-five students from a Binyamina school tested positive for coronavirus this past week, the Health Ministry reported on Saturday.

Some 35 of the cases were identified on Saturday morning as a result of a wide testing operation carried out at the Karmin school in the city after a first child tested positive.

Only nine of the students who tested positive were reported to have been experiencing mild coronavirus symptoms.

According to initial ministry findings, the source of the outbreak is still under investigation, but there is a connection with a family who recently returned to Israel from abroad.

The preliminary results of the genetic sequencing suggest that the children are infected with the Indian variant.

The Health Ministry called on Binyamina residents to get tested and to those who return from abroad to respect the quarantine requirements.

After consulting the Health Ministry, the school decided to remain closed on Sunday. The outbreak was detected following a major sampling operation conducted by the ministry after one student tested positive, N12 news reported.

Sampling was also extended to other schools in fear that the students may have been in contact with students attending other educational institutions in Israel.

The Binyamina-Givat Ada Council told N12 in light of the outbreak that “We are in direct contact with the verified children, the isolated and the parents and are aware of the Health Ministry’s and education system’s procedures.”

According to a ministry’s update, some 42 people tested positive to the virus on Saturday, as of 9 p.m., marking the highest number of daily cases in over a month.

The number of active cases has also been on the rise in the past few days, reaching 286 after dropping below 190.

At the same time, the number of serious cases continued to drop: there were only 22 serious patients on Saturday. At the peak of the pandemic, they were over 1,200.