Israel received 100,000 Modern vaccines last month, enough to inoculate 50,000 people. Most of them are still being stored in the logistics unit of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, near Ben-Gurion Airport, according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Health.
With a relatively small number of modern vaccines here, the reason for not launching is purely logistical, said the spokesman The Jerusalem Post.
For starters, while Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, the second injection from Pfizer is given 21 days after the first and the one from Moderna 28 – a difference that would add a layer of complication to the distribution campaign conducted by health funds .
In addition, vaccines need to be stored at different temperatures. Pfizer’s vaccines should be kept at minus -70 degrees Celsius, while Modern vaccines require minus -30 degrees.
Finally, vaccines are dosed differently and there are a different number of doses in each bottle.
Each dose of Pfizer is 0.3 milliliters and contains 30 micrograms of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, while Moderna’s is 0.5 ml. 100 microgram dose of the vaccine. Each bottle of Pfizer contains six doses, while each bottle of Moderna contains 10.
Originally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Modern vaccine would be used to inoculate Israel’s domestic community. However, the Ministry of Health said this was also very complicated.
For now, Magen David Adom and other emergency response teams are bringing these individuals who stayed home to health fund vaccination centers by ambulance and then returning them home.
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Earlier this month, Israel transferred 2,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine to the Palestinian Authority for use in vaccinating its medical teams. A total of 5,000 vaccines will be transferred in three more shipments.
The Ministry of Health has not made a final determination on how the rest of the vaccines it ordered from the US company will be administered, the spokesman said. the post.
Israel has ordered six million modern vaccines, enough to vaccinate three million people.
He also ordered another 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Moderna’s next large-scale delivery is due to arrive in Israel in March.
Over the weekend, Israel was under pressure over its choice to keep the vaccines instead of transferring them to the PA, which received 10,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
An article published by Bloomberg accused Israel of “keeping its supply of Moderna Inc. on hold” while “not inoculating the millions of Palestinians under its control”.
IDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General. Aviv Kochavi and Defense Minister Benny Gantz are expected to approve a request submitted by the AP in the next few days for the transfer of tens of thousands of doses of vaccines to the Gaza Strip, reported the Hebrew website Walla on Sunday, without specifying which brand vaccines.
Pfizer has committed to providing Israel with as many vaccines as necessary for its citizens in exchange for providing the company with comprehensive data on the distribution of the vaccine in the country and its impact on infection rates.
So far, 3.8 million Israelis have received at least the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and nearly 2.5 million have received the second dose.