A year after rolling out the world’s fastest coronavirus vaccination program, Israel again finds itself a global test case as it begins widely delivering fourth doses amid a surge in the omicron variant.
Although the number of serious cases and deaths remain well below last year’s peak, infections have skyrocketed to a record level and could once again threaten to overwhelm hospitals if the new daily caseload reaches 50,000 as Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has warned. Many of the newly infected had been vaccinated at least twice.
The surge is gripping Israel as its leaders adopt strategies that have confused the public. And as lines at testing sites get longer, officials have also begun acknowledging they might have to resort to what Bennett decried so vigorously when he was an opposition lawmaker: another lockdown.