Nearly a million Israelis have got their THIRD Covid-19 dose
as WHO reiterates call for moratorium on such booster shots.
16 Aug, 2021 10:12
Israel has already administered a third vaccine dose to almost a million people, its health ministry has said, amid calls by the World Health Organization to delay such booster shots until poorer countries get their first jabs.
The number of Israelis who have received their third dose of the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19 has reached 963,572, the country’s Ministry of Health announced on Monday.
In late July, Israel became one of the first countries in the world to begin administering booster shots to already fully vaccinated residents. These were initially offered to those over the age of 60, but last week the program was expanded to include residents over 50, as well as healthcare workers, prisoners and people with deficient immune systems.
The push for a third dose started as Israel’s new prime minister Naftali Bennett came under intense political pressure amid a recent sharp spike in infections and hospitalizations, in a country that had celebrated victory against the virus not so long ago. Health officials have also been voicing increasing concerns over the potentially waning efficacy of Covid-19 jabs in the face of the more contagious Delta variant, which saw both vaccinated and fully vaccinated people becoming ill.
There were 5,075 positive tests in Israel on Sunday, with 519 coronavirus patients logged as being in serious condition, according to the health ministry’s data.
Bennet has been actively promoting the controversial booster-jab practice, going as far as saying that elderly people, who refrain from getting the third dose, were “in mortal danger.” He also insisted that Israel was doing the world a “great service” by administering booster shots and sharing its data.
Earlier this week, the US Federal Drug Administration also authorized a third vaccine dose for immunocompromised persons, while President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, suggested that everyone could require booster shots at some point.