Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement at the end of the Coronavirus Cabinet meeting Monday evening following the announcement that the Moderna coronavirus vaccine achieved an effectiveness rate of 94.5%.
"I am sure you have heard the excellent news from Moderna, that it has developed a vaccine for the coronavirus with an efficiency of 94.5%. As early as June, I confirmed with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein the signing with Moderna on the supply of vaccines to Israel - which will be one of the first countries to receive the vaccines," Netanyahu said.
He said, "Last Friday, we also signed an agreement with Pfizer for 8 million vaccines for 4 million citizens."
Netanyahu has revealed that he is working to purchase vaccines from other source sources. "I recently spoke with Russian President [Vladimir] Putin about the possibility of acquiring the 'Sputnik 5' vaccine. We will discuss this in the coming days."
"The vaccines will not arrive in Israel from today to tomorrow, but we are not talking about years, but rather months. Until the vaccines arrive and even after - we must not be caught being complacent," Netanyahu said.
He boasted that "Israel has managed to reduce morbidity data to a level considered one of the lowest in the Western world."
The Coronavirus Cabinet decided Monday evening that starting tomorrow, the shopping complexes in green cities will open and at the same time a pilot program will be launched to open the closed malls.
It was also decided that fifth- and sixth-graders would return to school next Tuesday and eleventh- and twelfth-graders would return to the school bench the following week.