An elderly Israeli patient of the influenza A/H1N1 died on Wednesday, marking the 66th fatal case in the country related to the global epidemic, local news service Ynet reported.
The latest victim, a 77-year-old woman, also suffered from other diseases, while the flu cannot be ruled out as the cause of the death, the
Health Ministry was quoted as saying.
The death case came a day after local media revealed that Israelis seemed uninterested in receiving vaccines against the virus, with statistics from health authorities showing that only 1. 3 percent of Israeli residents have been vaccinated despite that a much larger number of doses were available.
Earlier this year, local health experts warned that about one quarter of the total Israeli population would contract the virus during a possible outbreak this winter, among whom around 700 would die.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also Health Minister, has already ordered 7.3 million doses of A/H1N1 vaccines, enough for every
resident in the country except for newborns.