Authors: FROM THE LIVEBLOG OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021 7:56 pm  

Health Ministry data cited by Channel 13 suggests the Delta variant may be more effective at causing COVID reinfection among recovered patients than earlier strains of the coronavirus.

According to the data, 4,811 Israelis have been reinfected with coronavirus, accounting for 0.47 percent of the total recoveries. (The data provided refers to over 900,000 recovered Israelis, though the figure has since surpassed a million).

However, just 0.08% of the reinfection cases were recorded in 2020, while the number climbed to 0.71% in 2021 when the Delta variant became the dominant strain in Israel. In the past month, 2,702 recovered patients contracted the coronavirus again, or some 1.8%, the report says. It is unclear to what extent the Delta variant is more effective and to what extent the reinfections are the result of waning antibodies.

The majority of reinfections are among the young, according to the report.