Some 700,000 Pfizer coronavirus vaccines landed in Israel on Sunday and were met at Ben-Gurion Airport by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.
"This is a great day for Israel with a huge shipment that has arrived in the framework of Operation Back to Life, a plane full of injections of encouragement," Netanyahu said, informing the public that next Sunday an additional shipment would arrive “and we will start vaccinating the next group, people aged 50-60.”
According to the agreement between Israel and Pfizer, the company will deliver tens of thousands of vaccines to Israel each week until every Israeli who wants to be inoculated has been jabbed.
To get this done, the prime minister said that the country would increase the number of people vaccinated per day to 170,000 beginning immediately. Later Coronavirus Commissioner Prof. Nachman Ash said that the goal was to vaccinate as many as 200,000 people per day - some with their first doses and some with their second.
"Tonight, we will
sit down with the health funds and prepare for the next stage of the
vaccination campaign," Edelstein said.
"I am certain that our amazing medical teams … they will get this done,” Netanyahu added.
The announcement came on the same day as the Health Ministry announced that more than 72% of Israelis over the age of 60 had been vaccinated against the virus and that Edelstein said he had met with his staff and instructed them to evaluate the possibility of offering vaccinations throughout the night.
At the airport,
Edelstein, like Netanyahu, committed that by mid-March Israel will reach five
million vaccinated citizens.
The Health Ministry already is opening up vaccination to educational staff and said that next in line are people over the age of 55. By next week, those over 50 should be able to get the jab.
The Education Ministry informed teachers on Sunday of the process for getting inoculated and said that the campaign would also include other school staff, such as secretaries, aides and counselors.
Priority is first being given to those people who are expected to teach during the lockdown, like special education teachers and staff, and those that work with youth-at-risk or in boarding schools.
It is expected that the first teachers will begin getting inoculated as early as Wednesday.
So far, more than 1.8 million Israelis have received their first dose of the vaccine, Edelstein reported early Sunday. More than 40,000 Israelis were inoculated on Saturday alone.
As mentioned, almost
three-fourths (72%) of people over the age of 60 have been inoculated, with 59%
of all those who have been vaccinated being over 60.
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