Health Ministry Director General Prof. Hezi Levy stated Thursday evening that in his estimation young and healthy Israelis will be able to begin receiving coronavirus vaccines as early as February.
In a press briefing, he said that "every day 30 new deaths and 100 critically ill patients are added. We are planning additional steps that we may need to take in order to reduce the morbidity - reducing studies, staff and movement."
''If we continue at this rate of morbidity and fail to reduce it - we will double the number of patients every two weeks, double the people in serious condition every 5-6 days and reach a state of insufficiency and mortality. So we think we may have to impose more restrictions. We are waiting a while longer to see the effects of this lockdown, and it will be seen in a few days."
Addressing the vaccination campaign, Prof. Levy said that "Israel is the world champion in the number of vaccinated per day per one hundred people. So far about 800,000 Israeli citizens have been vaccinated. Both yesterday and the day before there were 150,000 vaccinations. Today we are at the same rate but the final numbers will be updated later. About one third of those over 0 have been vaccinated and 80 percent of those who have been vaccinated are over 60.
"There are 257 vaccine stations spread out in the State of Israel, and tomorrow we will open another 70 stations. We are increasingly going to smaller cities in the periphery and in the Arab sector."
Regarding the education system, the director general of the Ministry of Health said: “We are also seeing an increase in the rate of morbidity among teachers and kindergarten teachers. If the rate of morbidity among the general public ranges from 5 to 7 percent then among teachers the verified rate is also about 6 percent. "One of the tools is to reduce the mobility of families, parents, street traffic and student gatherings - this is a limitation in the education system."
"As more shipments arrive we will be able to open the vaccinations to more of the population," he said. "There are 257 vaccination stations spread across the State of Israel, and tomorrow we will open another 70 stations. We are increasingly going to smaller cities in the periphery and in the Arab sector."