Jerusalem, Feb 26 (IANS): The number of people vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus in Israel has reached 4,649,709, the state's Ministry of Health said on Friday.

Israel has thus vaccinated about 50 per cent of its population of about 9.3 million, since the vaccination campaign began on December 20, 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Israel reached 769,971, of which 40,445 are active cases, according to the ministry.

The number of death cases rose to 5,694, while the number of patients in serious condition decreased to 738, out of 1,172 hospitalized patients.

Also on Friday, Israel's Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center (CNIKC) said the country's Covid-19 reproduction number, also known as the R number, rose to 0.97, compared to 0.79 on February 21.

The R number is an indicator used to determine how fast Covid-19 is spreading, as an R number greater than 1 means that the number of patients increases at an exponential rate and multiplies from time to time.