Israel extended third dose to all population eligible for coronavirus vaccine

Israel announced today which extends the application of the third dose to the entire population suitable for the coronavirus vaccine, which in the country is intended for people over 12 years of age.

“From today, the third dose is accessible to allThe director general of the Ministry of Health, Nachman Ash, who heads Israel’s strategy against covid-19, announced at a press conference.

Israel started applying the third dose at the end of July, people who are immunocompromised and over 60 years of age, to gradually widen the age group to make it accessible from today to all over 12 years old.

According to the Ministry of Health, Israel will exceed the figure of two million people with the third dose.

The only condition to receive it is that five months have passed since the second dose, which in Israel has received around 5.5 million people since inoculation with Pfizer began last December, although around 1.1 million Israelis have given up vaccination.

Celebrations

“The third vaccine makes it possible to stop the epidemic, from today it is open to all. Go get vaccinated so that we can celebrate holidays together, ”Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said on his Twitter account of the upcoming Jewish New Year holiday starting next week.

Decision to extend plan to third dose comes as Israel experience the fourth wave of the pandemic, with more than 7,000 new cases recorded, including 726 serious patients, the highest number since March.

The positivity ratio reached for the first time in the last six months 7%, after reducing it to almost zero in June, following the initial rapid and successful vaccination campaign.

Israel has more than 80,000 active cases at the moment, not far from the peak of 88,000 at the worst of the third wave of January; Although the virus’s reproduction rate has declined slightly, the outbreak is therefore expected to begin to decline soon, which authorities attribute to the effectiveness of the third dose.

It is expected that next Wednesday, September 1, the face-to-face school year will begin in Israel, when there will be around 34,000 positive among school-aged children and 90,000 are isolated for coming into contact with an infected person.

Dose

The novelty of this course do the over 12s they can be vaccinated in the same educational center.

The media – citing diplomatic sources – also reported that the European Union, given the new situation in the country, could remove Israel from list of “epidemiologically safe” countries, reintroducing travel restrictions for Israelis.

Last week Israel administered more than 100,000 vaccines against Covid-19 per day, mainly reminders, but also first and second doses.

So far, some 5.95 million Israelis have received at least one dose, while 5.46 million people have already received both and 1.96 million the booster dose.

Since the start of the pandemic, Israel has counted 1,031,810

Source: EFE and ANSA