Israel is preparing to launch a vaccination campaign against Covid-19 presented as “unprecedented in the world”: from the week of December 28, the country gives itself a month to vaccinate a quarter of its population.
“Over the weekend, I told the managers of the companies that supply us with the vaccines that our goal is to vaccinate 150,000 people a day from the beginning of next week, which would be a world record“, said the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But, to carry out this health offensive, the State depends on the pace of delivery of the 14 million doses ordered from Pfizer and Moderna laboratories.
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With 150,000 vaccinations a day for 30 days, that would give 4.5 million doses administered, so 2.25 million immune people – vaccination requires two doses at three-week intervals – or a quarter of Israel’s population (nine million), he estimated.
“As soon as this is achieved, in 30 days, we will be able to get out of the coronavirus and reopen the economy”, added Netanyahu, the first in Israel to get the vaccine on Saturday.
In the process, hospitals launched a vaccination campaign starting with healthcare professionals and people over 60, the most vulnerable to the virus, which has so far infected almost 400,000 people in Israel and left 3,203 dead.
However, in view of the increase in the number of infections in recent days, the government order an generalized confinement on Sunday. Travelers returning from abroad must – with rare exceptions – spend their quarantine (10 to 14 days) at hotels designated by the authorities.
