TEL AVIV – Israel will start on Thursday to inoculate everyone over the age of 16, the government said, expanding the world’s fastest Covid-19 vaccination campaign as it faces a new spike in infections.
The small Middle Eastern country has already administered the first injection of a recommended two-dose regimen for more than a third of its population of around nine million since the start of its program on December 20. She started the campaign targeting those over 60 and the most vulnerable, including frontline medical workers, and gradually expanded that list over the next few weeks. About a fifth of the entire population is fully vaccinated, according to data from the Israeli Ministry of Health.
Israel, which leads the world in vaccination against Covid-19 in terms of the percentage of the total population inoculated, intends to inoculate most of its population by March. This was possible after she paid a premium for early shipments from Pfizer Inc.
and agreed to share data about his vaccine, from effectiveness to side effects. He also placed orders for other vaccine companies, including Moderna Inc.
and AstraZeneca PLC.
Meanwhile, infections have continued to rise in recent weeks, despite a one-month block that included a total ban on international flights since last week. Israel increased fines for those who violated the blockade earlier this week, but enforcement remains a challenge, especially among the ultra-orthodox community hard hit by Israel.
About 80% of Israel’s current cases were caused by a variant of the coronavirus that spread rapidly in the UK, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We will be on the way to victory over the coronavirus, of course, if there are no surprises like new mutations that we are not familiar with and that could enter Israel,” he said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Israel’s cabinet will meet again on Wednesday night to discuss the extension of the national blockade so that its vaccination campaign can continue to monitor the new outbreak.
Netanyahu said Israel’s exit from the blockade would depend on vaccinating 90% of people over 50 in the next two weeks, because that age group is responsible for most serious cases. So far, Israel has vaccinated 77% of this group, he said.
Israel says it is on track to vaccinate everyone over 16 by the end of March. To understand how the small country vaccinated more of its population than any other so quickly, the WSJ visited clinics that are giving vaccines to young and middle-aged citizens. Photo: Tamir Elterman for The Wall Street Journal (originally published on January 11, 2021)
Israel’s health ministry on Wednesday instructed its four health-care organizations to allow everyone over 16 to be vaccinated. The campaign has so far been open to people between 16 and 18 and over 35.
The shift also occurs because health professionals have struggled in the past few days to use all of their vaccine supplies, as initial enthusiasm for the campaign has waned, fewer people attend vaccines and the proportion of people in the target groups still vaccinated shrinks. Israel is reaching a high percentage of people over 60, and some groups including ultra-Orthodox, Israeli professors and Arabs have been less receptive to the vaccination campaign.
The number of people vaccinated each day dropped by half in the past week, according to data from the Ministry of Health. Israel has a goal of vaccinating more than 200,000 a day. The country vaccinated 100,097 people on Tuesday and 116,814 on Monday.
Israel currently has 73,700 coronavirus cases, including 1,108 critically ill patients. So far, 4,890 people have died and new cases are reported to be hovering around 7,000 a day.
Israel transferred 2,000 doses of the Modern vaccine on Monday to Palestinians amid growing concerns that the spread of the disease in neighboring West Bank and Gaza could become a threat to the country.
—Dov Lieber contributed to this article.
Write to Felicia Schwartz at [email protected]
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