All residents of Israel age 16 and over will be able to be vaccinated against coronavirus by the end of March, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday.
"Israel will be the first country in the world to emerge from the coronavirus," Netanyahu said.
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"As part of the agreement with Pfizer, we decided that Israel will be a global model state for the rapid vaccination of an entire country. To this end, we have brought forward the arrival of the vaccines and also increased their number. We truly are a light onto the nations," he added.
Shipments of vaccines are scheduled to arrive in Israel throughout January, much earlier than was initially expected, and will prevent the vaccine shortage that was predicted by the Health Ministry, allowing Israel to continue its rapid inoculation campaign.
Netanyahu assured Israelis that this Passover (which begins on the evening of March 28), "we will – with the help of God – be able to sit around the holiday table with grandmother and grandfather, mother and father, children and grandchildren.
"Through 'Operation Getting Back to Life,' we will open the economy, return to places of work, synagogues, restaurants and cafes, soccer fields and basketball courts, cultural events, to the lives we so much miss and love," he said.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel must not forget for a moment that the pandemic was running amok in the world.
"The mutation has brought countries like England and other countries to a third full lockdown as well as record mortality and morbidity, but for us, victory is within reach. For this, we need everyone to make one final effort. I call on everyone to adhere to the lockdown rules," he urged the public.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein spoke after the prime minister on Thursday and said that Israel was the first country in the world in which "Eighteen percent of the population has already received the first dose of the vaccination and whose medical staff is already inoculated. Seventy percent of the at-risk population is already vaccinated, and we are the first [country] to achieve that, too."
"I am proud to be health minister, to be Israeli, to be a citizen of a country that spares no effort for the sake of complete health," Edelstein said.
The announcement came after Netanyahu approved earlier Thursday Prime Minister-designate Benny Gantz's request to prioritize teachers for vaccination. The Education Ministry has 8,000 teachers over the age of 60, and thus far only a very small percentage of teachers have been vaccinated.
Also on Thursday, over 1 million doses of the Moderna COVID vaccine arrived in Israel, a relatively small shipment intended to test supply and refrigeration protocols.
The vaccines are being stored at a Teva factory in Kfar Saba. Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, which have to be kept at a temperature of -70 degrees Celsius, Moderna vaccines only need to be stored at -20C. Once the vaccine has thawed, it can be kept in a fridge for up to 30 days, in contrast to Pfizer's five-day maximum storage.
As morbidity rates skyrocket in Israel and the population enters a third lockdown, the country's vaccination campaign continues at an impressive rate. More than 1.5 million Israelis have already received first doses of the vaccine.
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