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The vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech is 98.8% effective in preventing deaths or hospitalizations from COVID-19, the head of Israel’s health ministry said.
The Times of Israel reported that the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health, Chezy Levy, said in a statement that data collected by his agency also revealed that the vaccine was 99.2% effective in preventing severe cases. of disease. The data analyzed by the agency included only patients who received the two doses of Pfizer vaccine, the journal noted.
“The vaccine dramatically reduces serious illness and death,” Levy said, according to The Times of Israel.
“Thanks to Israel’s strong health system which has enabled us to vaccinate an unprecedented percentage of the population and our epidemiological monitoring facilities, we are the first country in the world to be able to show the effect of the vaccine in the clinical world. real, ”Levy added.
The health minister added in Saturday’s statement that Israel will continue to seek to vaccinate all adults over 16 against the virus before proceeding with vaccines for the country’s younger population.
Israel has won praise for the rapid pace of its program, which so far has enabled around a third of the country’s population to receive a vaccine. The country’s government has also been criticized over the availability of the vaccine in the Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian authorities calling on Israeli officials to increase the number of vaccines provided to millions of Palestinians living in these areas.
The head of Gaza’s health ministry said last week that the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines had started arriving in the territory, but stressed that the 2,000 provided was far from the number needed to vaccinate health workers on the territory. the territory.
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