Israel’s Health Ministry reported on Thursday morning that almost 800,000 Israelis have been vaccinated, with 150,600 vaccinations administered on Wednesday, the second day in a row that over 150,000 Israelis have been vaccinated.
Almost 30% of Israelis over 60 have been vaccinated as well as 7.74% of the general population.
“Over 150,000 people in a day!” Health Minister Yuli Edelstein wrote on Twitter. “Within 11 days of Operation Latet Katef, we vaccinated almost 800,000 citizens.”
Channel 13 News reported on Wednesday that Israel might be forced to freeze its vaccination campaign for two weeks in January due to a shortage of doses since the current stock will run out in about 10 days at the current vaccination pace.
The report was confirmed on Thursday, with Health Ministry Yuli Edelstein telling Channel 12 News that first vaccine doses may be stopped for a short period. However, he emphasized that there will always be enough vaccine doses to administer the second dose to those who received the first dose.
“At the current rate, we will begin administering the second vaccine dose in ten days,” he said. “There will never be a time when we don’t have enough vaccines in storage for a second dose for those who have already been vaccinated.”
Edelstein added that he has been in contact with Pfizer in order to accelerate Febuary’s vaccine order to January but emphasized that even if there is a lull in vaccinations for two weeks, Israel will still lead the world by far in vaccinations per capita.
However, a Channel 12 News report later on Thursday said Israel may receive one million vaccines from Moderna next week rather than in March, per a previous agreement. The report has not yet been confirmed by the Health Ministry but if it is true, it may thwart the expected shortage in January as Israel awaits the additional shipments of Pfizer vaccines.
יותר מפי שניים מהמדינה השניה אחרינו בחיסונים. ממשיכים במשימה. pic.twitter.com/KwCmrz1dml
— Yuli Edelstein 🇮🇱 יולי אדלשטיין (@YuliEdelstein) December 30, 2020
In other vaccine news, Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv, in cooperation with the Tel Aviv Municipality, opened a huge vaccination center in Rabin Square on Thursday.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
My suggestion to the Israeli government: A 10 dose vial of Moderna vaccine can ordinarily yield 11 or 12 doses. If you reduce the dose administered to 4ml instead of 5ml it would increase the yield to about 15 doses per vial. The Moderna vaccine is still expected to be effective at the reduced dose since the usual dose contains 100mcg vs Pfizer’s 30mcg. Then postpone the second dose to 12 weeks instead of 4 weeks. This would lead the entire vulnerable population to be inoculated to 70% effectiveness in short order. That is usually considered enough to halt a pandemic.
ShatzMatz
Even if you are right that it is 70% effective, AND that 70% id ‘usually’ enough to halt a pandemic, that isonly if most of the population were to be vaccinacted, but if only the high-risk sector is vaccinated, it would NOT be sufficient.