Israel is preparing to give a fourth dose of the vaccine | Abroad

Currently, a third dose – or a first booster dose – of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is being administered on a large scale to the Israeli population. So a fourth dose – or a second booster dose – can now be added. “The virus is here and it will stay,” Zarqa said on public radio. “This is what our lives will look like from now on. In waves.”

He did not say exactly when the fourth dose would be given. According to Al-Zarqa, it can be modified according to the variables of the Corona virus. This will allow the vaccine to provide better protection against the delta variant. The adjustment should be done by the end of this year or early next year.

Last month he said something similar in The Times of Israel. “The fourth corona wave in our country teaches us that we have to take into account the arrival of more waves with new variables,” it seemed at the time. “If we also consider the diminishing effect of vaccines over time, it appears that every few months – it could be once a year or every five or six months – we will need a new dose.”

Israel was the first country to officially provide a third dose of the Corona vaccine to its citizens. That campaign started on August 1 and initially focused on everyone over the age of 60. In the past week, everyone over the age of 12 had received the second shot at least five months ago. By Friday, 2.5 million of 8.5 million Israelis had received a third dose.

According to the latest figures from Our World in Data, more than 68 percent of Israelis have already received at least a first shot, and 62.70 percent have been fully vaccinated. By way of comparison: in Belgium 73.39 percent of the population received at least a first injection and 71.12 percent received a full vaccination. In Flanders, these percentages reach 79.41 per cent and 77.14 per cent, respectively.

Last week, Israel’s health minister announced that a “green passport” – which allows people who have been fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19 to participate in events in public places – will be six months after a second injection or infection. Will end.

Israel has seen the numbers of corona rise again recently. More than 11,000 new cases were reported Thursday, with a positive rate of 8.43 percent. Zarqa believes that the reason for this is that there are more tests.

Despite this, the number of serious infections decreased again for just over a week. Last Sunday there were still 753 cases, and last Friday there were 654 cases, according to the Ministry of Health. In Israel, according to official figures, there are already 7,129 deaths from the coronavirus.

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