Vaccine arrives asthirdwave begins to strike
ON S ATURDAY night, Israel’s vaccination drive will begin when Benjamin Netanyahu receives the vaccine in his official residence in Jerusalem. On Sunday, tens of thousands of doses of vaccines manufactured by Pfizer will be transported from the logistical centre in Teva to hospitals across the country. President Reuven Rivlin will be the first to be jabbed at Hadassah Hospital. On Wednesday, healthinsurance providers will receive doses to be administered.
In the following days medical teams will get the jab, followed by care-home staff, teachers, elderly people and those in high-risk groups. Next month the IDF is planning to inoculate all its soldiers. “I’m going to be inoculated on Sunday,” tweeted Professor Dror Mevorach, head of Hadassah’s coronavirus ward. I just spoke with a colleague at Sloan-Kettering in New York. He works thirty blocks from Pfizer’s headquarters and I’ll be inoculated before him!”
Mr Netanyahu’s incessant phone calls to Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla have helped secure earlier delivery dates for Israel. Over a hundred thousand doses have already arrived in Israel out of eight million purchased from
Pfizer — enough for a double dose for nearly half of Israel’s population, which should be administered by mid-February. Millions more doses from Moderna and Astra-Zeneca are expected to arrive by then for the rest. There will be enough extra doses to help the Palestinian Authority with its vaccination drive in the West Bank and perhaps even in the Gaza Strip. Israel hopes to be one of the first countries in the world to inoculate its adult population but that won’t save the country from a third wave of Covid-19 that is already crashing down.
On Tuesday, 2851 new cases of coronavirus were recorded, with 3.4 percent of the tests positive. The number of serious cases in hospitals is still just under 400 but the forecast is that it will reach a thousand by mid-January, close to the full capacity of the health system. Sources at the health ministry said that at this rate they would recommend most businesses, with the exception of food shops, close down.
Two major sources for the spike in new cases are an outbreak within the ultra-Orthodox community where, according to data compiled by Professor Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute, infections doubled over the last week, and those returning from “red” countries abroad. Chief among these countries is the United Arab Emirates, which in recent weeks has become the most favoured destination for Israeli tourists with on some days as many as a dozen flights. Confirmed cases of coronavirus have been tracked to at least eleven flights returning from Dubai.
Public health experts and opposition politicians have called upon the government to declare the UAE a “red” country, forcing those returning to enter ten days of self-isolation. But so far the government has not acted and testing at Ben Gurion airport has yet to be made compulsory. According to government officials, the prime minister’s office has been reluctant to announce any changes regarding the UAE over fear of creating a diplomatic crisis with Israel’s new best friend in the region. Mr Netanyahu has also been planning a visit to the UAE soon that will feature heavily in Likud’s upcoming election campaign.
“The campaign will be about two things,” said one Likud MK this week. “Vaccines and the Emirates. Hopefully Bibi’s achievements there will be enough to make voters forgive and forget the terrible handling of the pandemic.”
The campaign will be about vaccines and the Emirates