Israel: green light for 4th dose of anticovid vaccine for over 60s

By Le Figaro with AFP

Posted on 01/02/2022 at 20:47 , Updated 01/03/2022 at 21 : 42

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday, January 2 that all Israelis over the age of 60 and medical personnel will be able to receive a fourth dose of the vaccine against Covid-19.

Read also Covid-19: Israel has won its bet on the third dose, but hesitates on the issue of children

First delivery of anti-Covid Pfizer pills

Already Thursday, the health authorities had given the green light to this new dose for immunocompromised people. But “

the Omicron wave is here and we must protect ourselves ”, declared the head of government during a press conference devoted to the pandemic, in full outbreak of contaminations linked to the Omicron variant . Israel also received Thursday a first delivery of anticoronavirus pills from Pfizer as the number of contaminations continues to increase since the appearance at the end of November of the first case in the country of the Omicron variant. The last few days have seen a spectacular jump in Covid-19 cases without, however, at least so far, resulting in a marked increase in hospitalizations. Authorities on Sunday reported 4,206 new cases of Covid in the past 24 hours and an increase of 195% from a week ago, which could quickly increase pressure on the health system. ” We can expect to have 50,000 new cases per day soon ”, warned Naftali Bennett, who reiterated his call for mass vaccination for adults and for children who are not

In a country of 9.2 million inhabitants, where already more than half of the population has received a booster dose, severe cases are currently concentrated in unvaccinated people, according to data released by the authorities. In total, 1,394,407 contaminations have been identified since the start of the pandemic in Israel, including 8,244 deaths according to official figures.