Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told Israelis in a national broadcast from the offices of the Government Press Office on Sunday night that the “fifth wave” of COVID-19, this one marked by the Omicron variant, has arrived.
But he began by first speaking about teenage Michal, age 16, who is now struggling with “long COVID” and for whom everything today is a struggle, as opposed to before the virus, when she was “filled with energy” and excelled at school, sports and everything else.
“This time around, the vaccine won’t prevent you from catching the virus but it will prevent you from becoming very sick,” he said. “That is why it is so essential to get the booster.”
Zeroing in on the issue of vaccination, Bennett reminded those listening that three weeks ago, he had said there was a new wave on the way, urging Israelis to get the shot.
“Some people didn’t believe me. I said then that we had to be ready and indeed, our government took measures to address the threat – and as a result, we bought precious time for our country.”
The decision to block the entry of non-citizens, taken just two weeks after the country had finally reopened to foreign nationals, was a ‘bold, brave” move, Bennett said, that bought “much needed time.”
The prime minister said, however, “The time we bought is now running out: the Omicron variant is here in Israel, from the kindergartens to the Knesset.
“And it is spreading fast,” he warned. “The numbers are not yet high but this is an extremely transmissible variant with a reproduction rate in which it is doubling every two to three days.
“The fifth wave is starting,” he said, adding that within three to four weeks, “perhaps sooner,” Israel will see a spike in morbidity “that will leave no room for doubt.”
Bennett added that while the vaccine largely protected against the Delta variant of the virus, the same is not quite true of Omicron. However, he said, even though “it is possible to become infected even if you get the booster, it will still guard your health” and one will experience a milder form of the virus as a result.
“I’m not saying this to frighten anyone or create panic. We have already passed that stage. We have learned from our experience with the four previous waves,” he noted.
“I also see the public’s exhaustion [with all this]. That’s understandable, and natural.”
Regardless of that exhaustion, however, Bennett called on Israelis to “do the right thing” and make sure their children are vaccinated.
“Vaccines for children are safe and they are the responsibility of the parents,” he emphasized.
“A reasonable, fair parent who received all three doses of the vaccine is obligated to also protect his children.
“Don’t leave your children unprotected and vulnerable to the Omicron variant that is coming. Every hour you wait is a wasted hour. After the first shot it will [still] take four or five weeks for children to be protected.
“If you wait for the wave to hit, it will be too late.”
Bennett also urged business owners to allow employees to work from home, starting tomorrow, and said that plans to start shifting government workers to remote work are on the way.
He added that more measures to deal with this latest wave of COVID-19 will be announced over the next two to three days.
The prime minister did not, however, address the addition of new countries to Israel’s no-fly list recommended to the Cabinet earlier in the day by the Health Ministry.