A Health Ministry official has confirmed to Israel Hayom that Jerusalem was in talks with UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, along with multinational firm Johnson and Johnson and France's Sanofi, to bring even more vaccines to Israel. GSK has two coronavirus vaccines in development, although they are in less advanced stages than the vaccines Israel has already signed on to procure from Moderna and Pfizer.
One of GSK's vaccines, now entering the third stage of research, is based on a unique technology that uses plant cells to create a protein used for the vaccine.
The second vaccine is the result of collaboration with Sanofi and is expected to reach the third phase of research by the end of the year. The firms are set to seek approval for this vaccine in the first half of 2021.
Meanwhile, following reports of disappointing efficacy data for Swedish-British biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine, a Health Ministry official said, "The methodology of the research is reasonable. They did super thorough work in a series of research studies. True, some things seem off in the research, but I assume this will be made clear later on, and it doesn't seem like it will have repercussions for the outcome."
Israel has signed on to purchase 10 million units of AstraZeneca's vaccine.
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Also on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel was "on its way out of the pandemic."
Speaking on a tour of a logistical center in the central Israeli city of Shoham set to receive, store and transport the coronavirus vaccines once they arrive in Israel, Netanyahu said, "It will take a few months, and we need the citizens' cooperation. Millions of vaccines are on the way. Every citizen will be able to get vaccinated more than once. There is no logistical limitation on their preservation, freezing, and distribution. This is very important news ahead of the end of the pandemic in the State of Israel," he stressed.
"We came to see in person the ability to preserve the vaccines at low temperatures, thaw them, and bring them to Israel's citizens. I am impressed by the world-class factory, a logistic center that is properly run and that can receive the millions of vaccines we are bringing to Israel together," he said.
Also in attendance on the tour were Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Health Ministry chief Hezi Levy.
Medical workers and people over 60 are poised to become the first Israelis to have access to a coronavirus vaccine, following a meeting of Levy's advisory team ahead of the arrival of the first batch of vaccines in December.
In a press conference following a meeting of the Health Ministry's advisory team on Wednesday, Health Ministry chief Hezi Levy emphasized there would be no mandatory vaccination, but said there was a desire among officials to encourage people to get vaccinated.
He said, "The first batch of vaccines is likely to arrive at the end of December, but the bulk of the shipment will be concentrated mainly in the first quarters of 2021."
According to the model for prioritizing populations for vaccination against the coronavirus proposed by the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first population set to be vaccinated are medical workers, with an emphasis on those at high risk of contracting and spreading the disease.
In the second stage of immunization, to go into effect once 10% of the vaccines have arrived in the country, Israelis aged 60 and up will be eligible to receive the vaccine.
In a later sub-stage of this second stage, younger Israelis with pre-existing conditions, among them cancer patients, diabetics, the obese, those suffering from hepatitis, and organ recipients will have access to the vaccine. At this stage, medical workers involved in administering the vaccine and teaching staff will be given access to the vaccine.
In the third stage, set to commence once between 21%-50% of the vaccines have arrived in the country, remaining teaching staff and essential workers from the health and education sectors will be eligible for vaccination.
In the next stage, pregnant woman will be able to receive the vaccine. And in the fifth and final stage, the vaccine will be made available to the general population.
The WHO has noted that every country should set its own priorities according to the availability of vaccines and the intensity of the virus.
Meanwhile, 1,069 of the 60,463 people who were tested on Wednesday were found to be carrying the virus, for an infection rate of 1.8%. This was the first time since Oct. 21, when 1,146 tested positive, that over a thousand new cases were recorded. The infection rate has not gone past 2% since Sunday when it stood at 2.2%.
Since the start of the pandemic, 332,317 Israelis have contracted the coronavirus, of them, 9,422 cases are still active. There are 282 people in serious condition, of them, 122 are on ventilators. So far, 2,826 people have died.
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On Wednesday night, the so-called "coronavirus cabinet" approved a pilot that will see 15 shopping malls opened across the country by Dec. 6. For over a week, the malls will be supervised by Health Ministry officials after which the government will decide whether to open up the remaining malls. The cabinet also authorized four museums to open, and will carry out a lottery for another three museums that will also be allowed to open. Reservations for admittance to the museums will need to be made in advance.
The Palestinian Authority has confirmed that talks with Israel on the transfer of medical equipment to Ramallah and even the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in an effort to contend with the spike in morbidity from the coronavirus are underway. According to senior officials in the Palestinian Health Ministry, Israel will transfer hundreds of ventilators, and lab equipment, corona testing kits, medicines, and sterile and sanitary equipment for medical staff.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday ordered security officials to look into a possible immediate closure of the border crossings into the Palestinian territories to prevent infections from slipping through the border into Israel. Over the past 24 hours, 9 people have died and 1,720 have been infected with the coronavirus in the West Bank and Gaza.
