Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced Sunday that Israel has signed a deal with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to move forward the next delivery of coronavirus vaccines from September to Aug. 1.
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The government hopes the earlier delivery will enable more Israeli teenagers to become immunized before the start of the school year in September. In addition, the rapid spread of the Delta variant has led to an increase in morbidity over the past month from single digits to an average of 450 a day.
There are currently 4,130 active cases in the country, with 75 hospitalized patients. The Health Ministry reported an alarming spike in the number of patients in critical conditions, which now stands on 14, and on ventilators (12). Of the 50,325 Israelis screened for the virus over the past 24 hours, 261 (0.6%) tested positive, setting the current infection rate at 1.35.
The IDF reported 61 new cases among its soldiers, with 232 people in self-isolation.
The Health Ministry has labeled four Israeli cities as "red" over COVID morbidity. Seven localities are "orange" and 16 have been ranked "yellow" on the ministry's "stoplight" system. Each designation carries different restrictions on public life, particularly public gatherings in closed spaces.
Israel has reported 835,329 cases, including 6,436 deaths, since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020. So far, 5,190,709 Israelis have been fully immunized, and 5,728,526 have received their first jab.
About half of the patients presently hospitalized in serious condition have been vaccinated, according to ministry data. Israel's Coronavirus Commissioner Professor Nachman Ash said on Wednesday the overwhelming majority of them are from at-risk groups, individuals over the age of 60 and with prior health issues.
To that end, the ministry said on Sunday it would begin offering a third Pfizer booster shot to adults with weak immune systems, but stressed it was still weighing whether the third round of shots should be given to the general public.
"We are examining this issue and we still do not have a final answer," Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz told Israel Radio. "In any case, we are currently administering the third shot to people suffering from immunodeficiency … These are for instance people who have undergone organ transplants or suffer from a medical condition which causes a drop in immunity."
Sunday marked the last day for Israelis to receive their first dose, and anyone wishing to get vaccinated will need to wait until the Pfizer shipment arrives. However, Horowitz said that in the meantime, the ministry would plug the inoculation supply gap for ongoing two-dose inoculations of the general adult population by using Moderna vaccines already in stock. Under ministry guidelines, only Israelis over the age of 18 can be immunized using a Moderna dose.
In the meantime, Pfizer asked the American Food and Drug Administration last week for approval to administer the third dose. It plans to conduct an emergency clinical trial with 10,000 participants, including a control group, hoping that by the time the approval is granted, the trial will have proven the booster shot to be effective.
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