The Ministry of Health may be forced to semi-freeze its vaccination campaign for two weeks in January, as it may run out of injections.
Unless an agreement is reached that Pfizer’s vaccine supplies, scheduled for February, arrive ahead of schedule, current stocks will run out in about 10 days at the current rate of inoculation – about 150,000 vaccines per day – reported Channel 13 on Wednesday.
Semi-freezing would allow those who received the first dose to receive the second dose, but the new first doses would not be given, according to the report.
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This, in turn, will likely lead to a delay in opening vaccination to the general public, said Channel 12. Some officials had previously estimated that this could happen within a week or more, but now it may be necessary to wait a month and a half or more, said the report.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein confirmed that his ministry may stop administering the first doses for “a short period”, telling Channel 12 that “there will be no shortage of the second dose”.
Edelstein added that he was in contact with Pfizer officials to anticipate vaccine orders from February to January, but said that “even if we stopped for two weeks”, Israel would still be far ahead of any other country in inoculations per capita.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein receives a coronavirus vaccine at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on December 19, 2020. (Amir Cohen / Pool / AFP)
Earlier on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health announced that 152,000 coronavirus vaccines were administered on Tuesday, even as Israel recorded the highest number of new cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of October.
Government officials have set a goal to vaccinate 150,000 Israelis a day by the end of the week.
“On the way to a million vaccinated!” Edelstein tweeted. “Close to 650,000 in total.”
Israel stepped up its vaccination campaign amid a third national blockade, which took effect Sunday night to stem the resurgence of infections.
A woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a Clalit vaccination center in Rehovot on December 29, 2020. (Yossi Aloni / Flash90)
The Ministry of Health said 5,583 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed on Tuesday, the biggest daily increase since early October, during the second blockade.
Meanwhile, coronavirus czar Nachman Ash said the blockade may need to be tightened and warned of a possible slowdown in the pace of the vaccination campaign.
“We are making a great effort to anticipate the next shipments so that no gap is created. If the shipments do not arrive sooner, this is a possibility and it is worrying, ”Ash told the news site Ynet.
However, Sharon Elroy-Preis, acting head of the public health services division, played down concerns about a potential vaccine shortage.
“We are in a routine process of receiving vaccines from Pfizer to make sure it stays that way,” she told Kan.
She praised hospitals’ ability to administer vaccines after they joined health-care organizations this week to inoculate the general public, and said the ministry wants to distribute special documents to those who have been vaccinated.
Israel started its vaccination campaign on December 20, focusing on health professionals, over 60 and some at-risk groups.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel wants about 2.25 million Israelis out of a population of 9.2 million to be vaccinated by the end of January.