Netanyahu speaks during a joint press conference with the Slovenian
Prime Minister in Jerusalem on December 8, 2020. ohad zwigenberg /
POOL / AFP
Israel will start Covid-19 vaccinations from December
27, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, as the
country received its first batch of Pfizer’s coronavirus
vaccine.
Netanyahu, who was on hand as an air freighter carrying the
vaccines landed at Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, vowed to be
the first Israeli to get the jab.
The shipment was the first of eight million doses Israel ordered
from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.
“This is a great celebration for Israel,” Netanyahu said as a
fork-lift truck started unloading the cargo.
“The first vaccinations will be given on December 27,” he said
later, noting the public health service would be capable of
administering 60,000 inoculations a day.
“Tomorrow another shipment is arriving, a much larger one,”
Netanyahu said.
“I’m asking that every Israeli citizen be vaccinated, and to do
so, requested to set an example and be the first person being
vaccinated in Israel,” he added, without saying when.
It came ahead of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, which
begins on Thursday.
“We’ve brought great light to Israel,” he said.
The Pfizer vaccine has yet to receive the necessary regulatory
approvals for use in Israel, but Netanyahu said he would be meeting
with the health minister and heads of the public health system on
Thursday to prepare “the massive national undertaking” of
vaccinations.
The results of third-phase clinical trials showed the vaccine
was 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19 symptoms and did
not produce adverse side effects among thousands of volunteers.
Britain started inoculating its citizens with the same vaccine
on Tuesday.
Israel has also contracted to buy six million Covid-19 vaccine
doses from US biotech firm Moderna which are expected to be
delivered in 2021, giving a total of 14 million shots for its
populaton of nine million.
Both medications require two doses to be administered for
optimal protection.
The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at the ultra-low
temperature of -70 degrees Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit), posing
handling and storage challenges.
‘End to the Plague’
Speaking at the airport, Netanyahu praised “our amazing
logistical storage centre, which is a few minutes from here, with
refrigeration and the highest medical standards in the world”.
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Israel imposed a second nationwide lockdown in September, when
the country had one of the world’s highest per capita infection
rates.
Restrictions have since been gradually eased in the country but
infection rates are again on the rise.
The virus has infected 349,916 Israelis, 2,934 of them fatally,
according to Wednesday’s official figures.
While reiterating the need to keep up with “masks, distancing,
hygiene and preventing gatherings,” Netanyahu was nonetheless
upbeat.
“We’re bringing an end to the plague,” he said in his Wednesday
evening address.
On Monday, Netanyahu’s office announced a sweeping night-time
curfew but it has so far not received the cabinet approval required
for its implementation and no details have been published.
On Wednesday evening, Netanyahu said the government would
meeting the next day to finalise the restrictions set to be
issued.
“We decided on taking the gatherings expected on the holidays,
Hannukah, Christmas and the New Year, and limiting them to save
lives,” he said.
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi meanwhile suggested Israel might
provide vaccinations for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank or
the Gaza Strip.
“We don’t rule out this opportunity once we will have the amount
that we need for our first responders, health community and others,
and as far as I know they have already engaged with some of the
companies,” he said.
The Palestinian Authority says over 75,500 people have so far
been infected with coronavirus in the West Bank and 712 have
died.
In the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip there have been about 25,500
infections and 155 fatalities.
On Monday, the enclave’s Hamas rulers said Gaza had received
20,000 test kits from the World Health Organization, after warning
it could no longer perform testing due to a shortage of
equipment.
Facing a surge in cases, Hamas has also announced a lockdown on
weekends lasting from December 11 to the end of the month. It also
closed schools, universities, kindergartens and mosques.
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