Hospitals and clinics of the various health funds around the country received deliveries of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Medical teams and populations considered to be at high risk will be the first to be vaccinated.
This morning, President Reuven Rivlin, Coronavirus Czar Professor Nachman Ash, Head of Public Health Dr. Sharon Elrai-Price, Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and Finance Minister Yisrael Katz are expected to be vaccinated.
Prof. Jonathan Halevy, President of Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Prof. Ofer Merin, Director General of the hospital vaccinated this morning as well.
There are currently about 700,000 vaccines in Israel. At least another three million vaccines are expected to arrive in Israel by the end of the month.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was vaccinated last night at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer. "This is a small shot for a man and a huge step for all of our health," Netanyahu said after receiving the vaccine. "This is a very big day for the country and this is the beginning of the exit from the worst epidemic in the last hundred years. Everyone needs to get vaccinated. We can get out of this together."
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, who was vaccinated after the prime minister, said that "the vaccination campaign is testing the resilience of Israeli society." The minister added: "The vaccine is safe. Come and get vaccinated. I'm sorry to disappoint the fake news producers, I have not grown a tail."
Citing an increase in morbidity, the Ministry of Health has announced that from today all countries of the world will be considered red and those who return from them will go into isolation. The change mainly applies to three countries that have been green to date - the United Arab Emirates, the island nation of Seychelles, and Rwanda. Anyone returning from these three states by next Saturday will be exempt from isolation.