Despite its initial success with the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine, Israel is rapidly moving towards a third national block as the virus spreads.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet are blaming a more rapidly spreading strain first detected in the UK last month. Israeli officials confirmed four cases of this strain on December 23, days after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was an emerging problem there.
An ultra-orthodox Jewish man receives vaccination against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while Israel continues its national vaccination campaign, during a third national COVID blockade, at a Maccabi Healthcare Services branch in Ashdod, Israel, December 29, 2020 .
Amir Cohen | Reuters
At a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Netanyahu told ministers, “We are in a state of emergency.” Ministers agreed to a definite block to start on Friday that closes non-essential schools and businesses and forces residents to stay within a kilometer of their homes.
This is amid a global uproar due to the slow launch of a vaccine in the United States and elsewhere that Israel has been able to avoid.
Tom, 69, and Judy Barrett, 67, from Marco Island wait in line in the early hours at the Lakes Park Regional Library to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Fort Myers, Florida, USA on December 30, 2020. Photo taken on December 30, 2020.
Andrew West | USAToday | Reuters
Israeli officials boasted that the country had vaccinated more people in the first nine days of its vaccination campaign than in total Covid infections since the start of the pandemic.
The country had already vaccinated about 7% of its population of more than 9.2 million last week. The Israeli Ministry of Health projects that up to 90% of the population “at risk” will receive the second of two injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within the next 25 days.
The effectiveness of his vaccination campaign has made him a potential model for the rest of the world, say epidemiologists.
Israel had a head start, said Dr. Itamar Grotto, associate director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health and one of the leaders of the attack. “We have a national vaccination record that was established a few years ago; the whole country is in a database, ”he said in an exclusive interview with CNBC.
Registration was initiated to ensure that children received all vaccines. This infrastructure has enabled Israel to better prepare for this outbreak than many other countries fighting the virus. Israel had a scary trial for Covid-19 when it was hit by a wild-type poliovirus outbreak in 2013.
The country controlled the disease with an intense inoculation campaign that paved the way for the current vaccine database.
Israel’s medical infrastructure also offers some other advantages, he said:
- Medical care in Israel is widely socialized.
- Israel has only four health-care organizations serving citizens across the country, while many other nations have more competition in the system.
- These HMOs are all connected to the country’s national health service, which keeps records of all Israeli citizens.
- The entire system is digitized, in a single national system.
Before the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine packages started arriving in Israel on December 9, a government-organized panel began to decide who would get the vaccines in the first wave.
The boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be shipped at the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo plant in Portage, Michigan, December 13, 2020.
Morry Gash | Pool | Reuters
At the same time, the Ministry of Health started setting up a communication and distribution system so that when the vials containing the vaccine arrived, they could start functioning, he said.
Patients in the database of the first group to receive the vaccine received a consultation by email, text message or through an online registration form with date and time interval for vaccination. Regular clinics, community centers, hospitals and some sports stadiums have been transformed into vaccination centers and equipped with previously trained health professionals, he said.
Since the vaccine cannot be refrozen after thawing, Israel is encouraging managers at immunization sites to use all doses.
Grotto said there is a waiting list of people who can intervene in the short term if other people don’t show up by the end of the day. Distribution center employees are also dividing the bottles into smaller packages, suitable for each center, another effort to avoid waste.
Israel’s challenges, however, are far from over. Health officials recently confirmed that almost 500 doses were missed in the southern part of the country because health professionals were unable to get enough people on standby to go to vaccination centers.
Israel expects more shipments from Pfizer. It also made agreements with Moderna and AstraZeneca; however, these photos have not yet been delivered. But they are expected soon. Israel is also working on its own vaccine, but there is no word on when it will be ready.