Israel on Monday signed an agreement with U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer allowing Israel to once again obtain millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a joint statement from the prime minister’s office and the health ministry.
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Nearly five million Israelis, more than half of the population, have received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to health ministry statistics released on Monday.
“We have signed an agreement with Pfizer to acquire millions of doses of vaccine which will allow us to continue to fight against corona until the end of 2022”, announces the press release.
A country of 9.2 million inhabitants which has been carrying out the most intense vaccination campaign in the world since the end of December, Israel has gradually emerged from its third confinement in early February.
The obligation to wear a mask in public places was lifted on Sunday.
In exchange for rapid access to millions of doses of the vaccine, Israel, which has digitized medical data of its entire population, provided Pfizer with data on the effect of the vaccination.
“If we are not faced with a surprise with variants that the vaccine does not fight, we will be able to vaccinate the entire population, adults and children,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to this statement.
Israel, which has recorded 837,199 patients including 6,340 deaths, has observed for several weeks a decline in the epidemic, with less than 200 new cases daily, against more than 10,000 at the height of the crisis.