חיסון לקורונה. אילוסטרציה
חיסון לקורונה. אילוסטרציהצילום: iStock

One out of every eight Israelis have received the first dose of the two-dose coronavirus vaccination so far, according to data released by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud) Monday morning.

A total of 134,226 people received the first dose of the vaccine Sunday, bringing the total number of people to receive the vaccination in Israel to 1,224,000.

That amounts to 12,59% of Israel’s total population, giving Israel the highest vaccination rate in the world so far, with Bahrain in a distant second at 3.57%, followed by the UK at 1.39%, the US at 1.28%, Denmark at 0.7%, Russia at 0.55% and China at 0.3%.

Israel plans to distribute two million doses of the vaccine by the end of January.

While Israel continues its efforts to vaccinate the population, the percentage of coronavirus tests coming back positive soared over the weekend, spiking at 6.6% on Sunday.

In a tweet Monday morning, Edelstein warned that while Israel was making progress distributing the vaccine it was in danger of “losing the war” against the fast-spreading mutation of the COVID virus first identified in the UK.

“We have 1,224,000 people vaccinated thus far. We are winning the vaccine race, but unfortunately are losing the war against the mutation. The rise in the infection rate should worry every public official who needs to remember: our first concern is the public health.”