Just recently, important data was released by the Maccabi Healthcare Services. According to the results, less than 0.1% of the people in Israel, who were given both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, contracted the novel coronavirus. This good news was delivered to the nation late on Thursday.
As of now, the effectiveness of the vaccine in the country is 93%. However, back when Phase III clinical trials were run for the Pfizer vaccine, it showed an efficacy of 95%.
The report stated that the data contained in it had been collected until the 11th of February, 2021, which was a week after some citizens had been given their second dose of the disease. Of the 523,000 people inoculated, only 544 were diagnosed with the disease.
Dr. Miri Mizrahi Reuveni, the head of the health division at Maccabi, asserted that the data simply proves the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine. According to her, the vaccine will help the relevant authorities in Israel, save the lives of numerous citizens.
Out of all those people who were vaccinated and later on contracted the virus, none of them died. In addition, the majority of the citizens who were infected had only mild symptoms or none at all.
The report identified that only 15 of the 544 infected, were hospitalized for better care. Four of these were in a serious condition, whereas three were in moderate and eight mild.
Maccabi also ran a random test on some of its clients, who had not yet been vaccinated. They were able to ascertain that of the 628,000 people with diverse profiles, only 18,425 came up with positive test results in the same time period as vaccinated clients.
Mizrahi Reuveni pointed out that there is active morbidity amongst adolescents and children, aged 16 or below. Consequently, they cannot be vaccinated and with the mutations of the virus being much more contagious, people who do not receive the vaccination are bound to get infected sooner or later.
She urged the citizens of Israel to hurry up and make a vaccination appointment for themselves as soon possible. According to the head, receiving the vaccine will save people from serious illness and death. Moreover, the possibility of them infecting and endangering others will not exist.
Up until now, the Maccabi has successfully vaccinated over one million of its members. All of them have at least been given the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The data further noted that the State of Israel has vaccinated more than 3.7 million citizens, which includes around 2.4 million people with both shots.
Recently, a computational biologist working at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Eran Segal, reported that ever since morbidity peaked in the middle of January, the country has seen a 38% decline in the number of patients in a critical condition. There has also been a 40% fall in the number of patients, aged 60 and above, who have lost their lives to the coronavirus.