NATION RACES AHEAD WITH VACCINATIONS

Israel is just nine days into its COVID-19 vaccination drive and already it has inoculated 5.7 per cent of its population.

More Israelis have now been vaccinated than have caught the virus and that includes over 25 per cent of those aged 60 and above. It is predicted that the proportion of over-60s among the critically ill will drop from 70 per cent to just 20 per cent by mid-January.

Israel is not just ahead of all other countries but the pace of its rollout is astonishing.

“It's really being treated like a war ... and Israel is experienced in battles,” said Prof Allon Moses, director of the Hadassah Medical Organization's Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Jerusalem.

“The hospitals are involved, the community clinics are involved, the army enlisted about 700 paramedics to help with the injections of the vaccine ... It's very similar to battle: you have an enemy, you have the right ammunition ... and you just have to deliver.”