Israel will suspend the world’s best coronavirus vaccination campaign for three weeks in January, the health minister said Thursday, following local media reports that the Pfizer vaccine would run out within 10 days at the current rate.
More than 800,000 people have received the first dose of the vaccine in 11 days, making up more than 7.4 per cent of the population. For the past two days, they have exceeded their target of vaccinating more than 150,000 people daily.
More than 30 per cent of people over 60 have been vaccinated and the country is on track to protect everyone in that age group within the next 10 days if they continue to speed greater than 100,000 per day.
But as shortages increase, the health ministry has had to announce that they will usually stop administering the first dose between January 10 and January 31 to ensure there is enough stock for the second. give a dose to those who have already been vaccinated.
Israel had been aiming to open the vaccine to the public within a week but the delay could now push that back up to six weeks, according to Channel 12 news.
Instead, Hezi Levy, the health ministry ‘s chief executive, told Kan news in February that there may be a limited expansion of the vaccination campaign, possibly with the age limit reduced to 50.