Israel Looks to Take the Lead in COVID Vaccination

Israel hopes to vaccinate about a third of its population against the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in the coming month, possibly the first country in the world to achieve this crucial landmark

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Saturday night that he has “gigantic news,” that he spoke with the heads of the companies that are providing Israel with the vaccines and told them that the country’s goal by next weekend is to reach 150,000 vaccines a day, essentially doubling the current pace.

Some 280,000 Israelis received the vaccine in the first week of Operation “Lend a Shoulder” to inoculate the population against COVID-19.

“This is fantastic but such a magnitude is a world record. I asked them to match the rate at which the vaccines are supplied to the pace of the inoculations and they said that they think they can do it,” he said.

Israel’s health system is currently administering the Pfizer-developed vaccine and hopes to incorporate the one developed by Moderna in the coming weeks.

Netanyahu explained that the vaccination rate, if achieved, means that within 30 days of reaching this pace Israel will have vaccinated 4.5 million citizens. Since everyone needs two injections, after one month we will have vaccinated 2.25 million Israeli citizens.

“There is nothing like this in the world,” Netanyahu declared.

Israel is so far the fastest country in inoculating its population against COVID-19, Our World in Data, a global, aggregated database on COVID-19, showed.

He further noted that “this is the critical stage, the first stage, because here is the population at risk, all the medical teams, all of the people over 60. 95% of mortality is in this bracket. As soon as we are done with this stage, within 30 days we can emerge from the coronavirus, open the economy and do things that no country can do.”

Netanyahu made the statement about 24 hours before Israel will enter its third countrywide lockdown in 10 months. The closure is expected to last three to four weeks.

The “short and tightened lockdown” and the vaccination operation will “get us out of the coronavirus first in the world,” he declared.

The Ministry of Health updated Sunday morning that it documented 2,630 new infection cases over the weekend.

Of the 64,662 tests done over the weekend, a high 4.1% returned positive.

584 patients hospitalized with Corona are in serious condition, 133 of them are on life support.

Since the outbreak in February, 3,210 Israelis have died of the virus.