Israeli Hospital Reports First Death of Patient With Omicron Variant

A medical staff cleans her hands as she attends to a COVID-19 patient in the coronavirus disease ward of Sheba Medical Center, in Ramat Gan, Israel, on Oct. 12, 2021. Nir Elias/Reuters

JERUSALEM—An Israeli hospital on Tuesday confirmed the first known death in the country of a patient with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, but said he had suffered from a number of serious pre-existing conditions. The Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba said the man, in his sixties, died on Monday, two weeks after he was admitted to the coronavirus ward.

A hospital statement said the patient suffered from a variety of serious illnesses. “His morbidity stemmed mainly from pre-existing sicknesses and not from respiratory infection arising from the coronavirus,” it said.