Health Ministry Expects to Vaccinate Adolescents in the Country By May

In recent news, the Director-General of the Health Ministry in the State of Israel, Chezy Levy, said that the children in Israel, aged between 12 to 16, might just get vaccinated before the month of May. This revelation came over the weekend during an interview, where Levy was questioned about the inoculation of adolescents. 

The Director-General stated that as soon as the relevant authorities receive word of FDA approval, the preparation of the vaccines will begin. Consequently, they will be imported to vaccinate the young people in Israel. 

Just last week, BioNTech and Pfizer made an announcement revealing that their vaccine is effective and safe for children wanting to get vaccinated against the disease. The two companies are also now awaiting approval from the FDA. 

The companies further announced that through collected data, they were able to conclude that the vaccine is now 91.3% effective against the infection. Moreover, their research indicated that it can maintain its efficacy for around six months.

More than 5.2 million citizens and residents of the State of Israel have been given at least the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Of them, around 4.8 million had been given both the shots. This means that around 52% Israelis have been fully vaccinated against the deadly disease. In addition, more than 820,000 people in the country had previously contracted the virus and have since recovered. 

Despite the progress that the vaccination campaign in Israel was previously making, it has now considerably slowed. This had left more than a million Israelis eligible for the vaccine. As per this number, around 238,000 people aged 50 and above, are still left. This part of the population is also the one that is at a greater risk of developing a lethal case of the coronavirus. 

In the past week, only 30,000 citizens of the State of Israel were given their first jab of the Pfizer vaccine, as per a report published by the Health Ministry. 

Levy stated that there are more than 2.5 million children residing in the country, as well as over a million adults, who have not yet been inoculated. He stressed upon the dangers of this fact saying that this could lead to the spread of the infection once again. 

He added that the country could finally be free of the deadly disease if the infection rate continued to decline and the number of people receiving the vaccinations, increased. This could mean that people would no longer have to wear masks in open areas or places with ventilation systems. 

The Director-General also went on to say that for now people would still have to wear masks in crowded spaces, as well as indoors but, that could soon cease to be a rule. 

He added that the no-mask policy is currently being debated between experts. According to him, people in the Ministry are divided on the basis of their differing opinions. There are some who are still quite afraid of the infection but, a majority of the people are in favor of not wearing masks in open spaces as the country is moving towards ‘herd immunity’.