The goal is to vaccinate 5.5 million of its 9.3 million citizens, PM Benjamin Netanyahu says.
Israel says it has vaccinated one million people – more than a tenth of its population – against COVID-19, as it spreads one of the earliest and fastest inoculation campaigns in the world. the world.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein criticized the million vaccines on Friday in Umm al-Fahm, a predominantly Arab city in the northern country.
Netanyahu said it was a moment of “great joy”.
Israel has given the first dose of vaccine to more than 10 percent of the population, according to Edelstein, less than two weeks after launching their inoculation campaign.
The vaccine target is 5.5 million people in the country of 9.3 million, Netanyahu said.
On Thursday alone, Israel delivered the injection to about 153,400 people, according to the health ministry.
More than 40 per cent of those over 60 in the country have received the first of two injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel’s population. They have Israeli citizenship and the right to vote but suffer discrimination in housing and other areas, handled by widespread distrust of authorities.
Netanyahu said “it is important to me that the Arab people in Israel get the vaccine quickly” because “it saves lives”. He delivered the same message at a vaccination center in Tira, another Arab city, on New Year’s Eve.
According to Oxford-based researchers, Israel is vaccinating its population at a pace unmatched anywhere else in the world.
A graphic on the website showed our world in data comparing the number of people vaccinated in each country for every 100 residents a clear direction for Israel at 11.55, just as it was on Friday – even although the country would lag behind countries like the United States and China in absolute numbers.
Coronavirus infections have been on the rise in Israel recently despite a third of blockages aimed at preventing the spread. It has reported more than 426,000 cases and at least 3,338 deaths since the outbreak began.
On Friday, the health ministry added 5,804 new diseases to the total. That was only slightly less than Thursday ‘s daily increase of 5,831 – the strongest increase in Israel since October.
The health ministry has called for restrictions to be tightened starting Sunday.