Initial data from Israel’s vaccination campaign shows that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine inhibits infections by about 50 percent 14 days after the first of the two injections, a senior Ministry of Health official said on Tuesday, due to to the country’s severe cases of COVID-19, daily infections and total active all cases reach historic peaks.
Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of the public health department at the Ministry of Health, told Canal 12 News that the data was preliminary and based on the results of coronavirus tests among those who received the vaccine and those who did not.
Other somewhat contrary data was released by Israeli health maintenance organizations on Tuesday night. Channel 13 News said that, according to data released by Clalit, Israel’s largest health care provider, the chance of a person becoming infected with the coronavirus dropped 33% 14 days after being vaccinated. Separate numbers recorded by health provider Maccabi and broadcast on Channel 12 showed that the vaccine caused a 60% drop in the chances of infection 14 days after the first injection.
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Each of the HMOs compiled data for nearly 400,000 treated patients (800,000 in total).
The cause of the discrepancy between the studies was not immediately clarified.
With Pfizer’s phase 3 tests checking only about 40,000 people, and considering the world’s leading vaccination campaign in Israel, the data may be some of the best concrete indications of the vaccine’s effectiveness.
Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis. (Courtesy)
Despite this, the vaccine is not expected to reach full protection potential until one week after the second dose of the vaccine, which started in Israel this week, was administered. The second dose should bring the immunity levels to about 95% after about a week.
Alroy-Preis pointed out that the data were not sufficient to conclude that the vaccine completely prevents the transmission of the virus, as it is believed that the virus can be transmitted to other people for a limited period of time if it is located in the nasal cavity, even if has not infected the body to a level that would give a positive test result.
Previously, Alroy-Preis said that almost a fifth of the more than 1,000 current serious patients with COVID-19 had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine – emphasizing the need to continue protecting themselves after receiving the injection.
“Seventeen percent of new serious cases today, or 180 cases, are after the first dose,” she told reporters.
The hospital team transports a new patient to the coronavirus wing of the Ziv Medical Center in the city of Safed, in northern Israel, January 7, 2020. (David Cohen / Flash90)
Alroy-Preis also expressed concern about high infection rates across the country, which have risen to nearly 10,000 new cases daily.
“We have never had a number like that,” she said, adding that the most infectious British strain of the virus, which is believed to have spread across the country, certainly played a role in the sharp increase in serious cases.
She said Israel would likely have to extend its national blockade, but added that there were early signs that the rise in infection rates was beginning to ease.
Alroy-Preis said that 73% of Israelis over the age of 60 or other high-risk factors have already been vaccinated with at least one injection, but noted that vaccinations were slower in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox communities.
The last number given by the authorities for the total number of vaccinations was 1,910,330 – about 20% of the population – although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held on Tuesday a ceremonial event celebrating the 2,000,000th vaccinated.
Health Ministry sources and experts have been quoted in recent days by various media outlets as saying that the exit from Israel’s last strict blockade, imposed on Friday, will likely take time, be gradual and will depend on the rate of vaccination and the trend observed in severe cases of COVID- 19 cases.
The current closure – scheduled to expire on January 21 – is almost certain to be extended, the sources said.
People walk on Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem on January 8, 2021, during a third total blockade across the country, in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Updated figures published on Tuesday night by the Ministry of Health indicate that 9,665 new cases were confirmed on Monday, a historic record. However, the rate of positive tests, 7.6%, was almost half the record set in September. The number of daily tests has grown dramatically and stood at 127,075 on Monday.
The initial numbers for Tuesday showed a similar positivity rate of 7.3% – 5,399 cases from 73,874 tests performed until 6 pm
The total number of cases since the start of the pandemic, which exceeded half a million earlier in the day, reached 508,604, including 75,408 active cases – a new historic record. Of these, 1,072 people were in serious condition, including 336 listed as critically ill and 269 on ventilators.
The death toll rose to 3,756 – an increase of more than 50 since the morning.
The Ministry of Health expects to have vaccinated 5.2 million citizens against the coronavirus by the end of March.
An Israeli receives his second Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Maccabi Health Services drive-in vaccination center in the northern coastal city of Haifa on January 11, 2021. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)
Health officials told Channel 12 on Monday that, based on the recent agreement reached with pharmaceutical company Pfizer, hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses will be sent to Israel each week.
This will allow an additional 1,300,000 Israelis to receive the first dose and 1,800,000 the second dose this month. The Ministry of Health plan foresees that 40-year-olds will begin to be vaccinated in February, with 1,450,000 people receiving the first dose and 1,750,000 receiving the second dose that month. In March, the remaining population over 16 years old will be allowed to receive the first injections, with 1,700,000 scheduled to receive the second dose.
If Pfizer fulfills all of its references in vaccine shipments, 5.2 million Israelis will be vaccinated by March 20, according to the Ministry of Health plan. That date also happens three days before the election. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges, has made the country’s vaccine the focal point of his re-election campaign.
The Ministry of Health also plans to introduce vaccination certificates as the municipality prepares to reopen the economy, which will allow vaccinates (as well as those with negative COVID-19 tests up to date) to participate in various events and participate in activities of which others will be blocked.