JDN

Israel hits milestone of over 4 million vaccinations

DESK

A photo illustration of a syringe next to the Pfizer company logo in Jerusalem on December 10, 2020. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** öéìåí àéìåñèøöéä îæø÷ çéñåï ÷åøåðä ôééæø

Four million Israelis, or some 44 percent of the country’s total population, have now received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. With the latest milestone, some two-thirds of those eligible to be immunized have received the first Pfizer-BioNTech shot. Some 1,996,000 eligible Israelis have yet to receive either dose.

Around 3 million Israelis are not eligible to be vaccinated, including those younger than 16 and people who have recovered from COVID-19, among other reasons.

The latest vaccine data was not yet available from the Health Ministry, which reported over 3.99 million people have been vaccinated as of Monday night. Official ministry figures on vaccination rates are sometimes only updated at the end of the day.

To mark the occasion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein met with a man in Jerusalem symbolically designated as Israel’s 4th million vaccinee.
Netanyahu urged the 570,000 people age 50 and up he said have yet to be vaccinated to get the shot, noting the higher rates of serious illness and mortality among this population.

“When you do not go to be vaccinated because of this small jab, which is insignificant — in the worst case the side effects are a few hours’ discomfort — you take upon yourselves the risks of death and severe illness with effects that could be for life,” he said.

Netanyahu added: “Not only are you saving yourselves; if you do not go to be vaccinated then many of you will become very sick and you will be a challenge for our hospitals and then we will be compelled to impose a new lockdown.”