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Israel has rolled out the world’s fastest Covid-19 vaccination campaign, inoculating nearly 20% of its population in three weeks. The small country – with around nine million people, roughly the same as New York City – is now aiming to vaccinate the majority of its population by March.
While Israel’s vaccination campaign is relatively straightforward compared to the mass mobilizations needed by countries like the United States which have many more people spread over a greater geographic extent, the effort offers clear lessons.
Ship small vaccine shipments
Pfizer Inc. -BioNTech SE vaccine should be administered within five days of leaving the primary storage facility and within six hours of adding a diluent before five to six doses are withdrawn from a vial.
To cope with this short shelf life and reach less populated and isolated areas, Israel – with approval from Pfizer – devised a system to divide the company’s 1,000-dose packages into smaller lots of a few hundred. each. Workers repackage the bottles in workstations equipped with massive freezers.
Israel, like most other countries, prioritizes healthcare professionals, people over 60, and people with high-risk illnesses as vaccines. But to ensure that no vial is wasted, authorities also allow vaccination centers to distribute excess doses to anyone who shows up.
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