Israel is continuing to expand its Covid vaccination rollout for a third jab with people 30 and over becoming eligible for the booster from today.
The expansion of the booster campaign comes after the Ministry of Health reported that 9,831 people in Israel tested positive for Covid yesterday, up from 8,726 week-on-week, and the highest figure since January, and only just below the all-time record daily figure of 10,200. Yesterday's new infections brought the number of people in Israel to contract Covid since the start of the pandemic to more than 1 million.
As the Delta variant sweeps the country, and the effectiveness of the first two Pfizer shots fades, the number of seriously ill patients has risen from 571 to 678 week-on-week, while 320 people have died over the past two weeks.
However, there are clear signs that the booster vaccination campaign, which began on July 30 for over 60s, and was extended to over 50s earlier this month and over 40s last Friday, is slowing the rate of serious infections. 1.58 million Israelis have so far received their third jab.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 24, 2021
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