Speaking on Reshet Bet on Sunday morning, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz admitted that, "The coronavirus is going to be here for the long-term."
"We have vaccines produced by the Moderna company," Horowitz said, "and from this morning, any adult who wishes to be vaccinated with a Moderna vaccine may do so. Yesterday, the project for getting teens vaccinated came to an end. We're still in the process of trying to procure new Pfizer vaccines and we hope that we'll get an answer about that very soon."
Horowitz also noted that, "Today, we're starting to vaccinate people who haven't responded well [i.e. have a low antibody response] to their vaccination - with a third dose.
"The coronavirus is going to be accompanying us for the long-term, and we're going to have to find a way of living with it," he added. "Therefore, the Health Ministry is taking steps to enable us to carrying on living our daily lives with the coronavirus in the background, without overly harsh regulations."
Meanwhile, reports are continuing to come in indicating a less-than-expected efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine. Last week, two people died of coronavirus-related illness in Israel, one of whom was an 84-year-old man who was fully vaccinated. In addition, a man over the age of 60 is reported as critically ill with coronavirus-related symptoms in Wolfson hospital in Holon. He had been fully vaccinated, as have been the other four people hospitalized for COVID-related sickness in Wolfson. All are over the age of 60 and therefore at increased risk of death.