Israel is the world leader in vaccine doses administered per 100 people, according to findings from the Our World in Data research institute.
As of Dec. 22, 8.3 of every 1,000 Israelis have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. As of Wednesday, 140,000 people, or 1.5% of Israel's population, had been inoculated. Of those who received the vaccination, 65,000 of them were inoculated on Wednesday. The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses to be administered 21 days apart to be effective.
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In second place behind Israel is the United Kingdom, which by Dec. 21 had administered 0.74 doses of the vaccine for every 100 people. For every 1,000 Brits, then, 7.4 have been inoculated.
Due to its tiny population, Israel is expected to continue to remain at the top of the list.
According to the Health Ministry, 44,657 people were vaccinated against the coronavirus on Tuesday, 23,000 on Monday, and 6,600 on Sunday.
According to Our World in Data, 2.4 million people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus worldwide, one million of them in China. In the US, 614,000 have received the vaccine, in Russia, 200,000, and in Canada, 26,000.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the achievement as an "incredible success."
In an interview with Army Radio, Thursday, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said that in one to two weeks, younger Israelis will be able to receive the vaccine. In its initial stage, the ministry's vaccination campaign had been directed at medical workers and those aged 60 and over.
With Israel set to go into lockdown next week, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, who heads the ministry's Public Health Services department, noted Israelis would be allowed to leave their homes to be vaccinated. The lockdown "should not stop this critical process," she said.
According to Health Ministry data, Israel confirmed 3,805 new cases of the virus on Wednesday out of the 91,174 tests that were performed for an infection rate of 4.3%. There are 497 people in serious condition, 117 of whom are on ventilators. Israel currently has 29,997 active cases, three times as many it did two weeks ago. So far, 3,150 people have died.
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