JERUSALEM – Israel was just last week seen as an example of a coronavirus country, surpassing the rest of the world in the rate of vaccination against its citizens by a solid margin.
But the virus had other ideas.
This week, Israel is intensifying as infections increase to more than 8,000 new cases per day. Officials fear that the more transmissible variant of the virus, first identified in Britain, is spreading rapidly and the vaccine supply in Israel is running low.
The prospect that Israel will be under the control of the virus by spring, which was once promising, now seems uncertain. Health officials say the vaccine campaign could not compete with rising infection rates in the short term.
And the Palestinian Authority, which manages its own health care system in the occupied West Bank, has asked Israel for vaccines, leading to a debate over Israel’s responsibility to the Palestinians at a time when Israel’s vaccine supply is dwindling.
“We are at the height of a global pandemic that is spreading at a record speed with the British mutation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video statement late Tuesday, which justifies the government’s decision to impose a full national exclusion that would close most schools and all unimportant workplaces for at least two weeks.
“Every hour we slow down, the faster the virus spreads, and it costs a very high price,” he added.
The closing decision comes after prof. Eran Segal of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, made the serious prediction that Israel’s infection rate could rise to 46,000 new cases a day by February without such action, an incredible number in a country with a population of about 9 million.
Government officials call the variant discovered in Britain one of the main reasons for imposing the stricter restrictions. Mr. Netanyahu said the variant was “jumping forward”, although not at the same rate as it was spreading in Britain.
At least thirty cases of the variant have been identified in Israel through special samples, spread across 14 different cities and towns, but officials and experts said the tests are aimed at identifying, not quantifying, the presence of the variant, and the actual number of cases was probably much higher.
Many scientists believe that the variant is more transmissible, which means that it can spread more easily from one person to another.
Professor Segal said that the variant could be a factor in the rising infection rate in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Israel. In the last four weeks, infections among the ultra-Orthodox have increased sixteenfold.
He estimates that the variant now accounts for about 20 percent of the disease state in ultra-Orthodox towns and neighborhoods.
There was constant tension between the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about 12.5 percent of the population, and the mainstream Israelis during the coronavirus crisis, especially over the insistence of some ultra-Orthodox to keep their educational institutions open against the regulations. during previous exclusions and generally disregard the restrictions on large gatherings and social distance.
Due to the tantalizing prospect of an early rise in the crisis, Israel’s vaccine supply has run low and officials have said they will have to delay their comprehensive vaccination program by mid-January unless they can persuade drug companies to deliver more vaccines sooner than later. what they promised.
Just a few days ago, Israelites celebrated the successful launch of their vaccination campaign, which surpassed the rest of the world. About 1.5 million Israeli citizens, or more than 16 percent of the population, have received a first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine since the December 20 vaccination program began.
According to officials, the shortfall may be due to the success of the program: the first phase of the program went faster than most thought possible.
Israel did not disclose the number of vaccine doses it had received, saying the agreements with the drug companies were confidential. The government has promised to discuss enough vaccines so that everyone who receives a first dose can receive their second dose as planned after about 21 days. This should include the majority of Israel’s high-risk population of health workers and citizens 60 years and older.
Silent negotiations are underway with the drug companies to increase their deliveries, but the shortfall could cause delays in implementation. Mr. Netanyahu, whose political future may depend on the success of the program, said he “continues to work 24 hours a day to bring millions of vaccines to Israel.”
Mr. Netanyahu said on Wednesday that a small first shipment of Modern vaccines would arrive on Thursday and that more would come. Medicine companies now view Israel as an interesting test case for the effectiveness of the vaccinations, and possibly as the first country to be fully vaccinated, officials and experts said, giving it an edge in securing additional deliveries.
Israel has been criticized by human rights groups for not extending their vaccination program to most Palestinians living under Israeli control, even while Israelites living in the West Bank settlements have been vaccinated.
Palestinian officials recorded hundreds of cases of Covid-19 a day in the occupied West Bank and in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the pressure of Palestinian coastal slaves whose borders are strictly controlled by Israel and Egypt, and health officials believe the true numbers are much higher. . Palestinians in those areas have yet to receive vaccinations.
Two Palestinian officials said Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority had asked Israel for up to 10,000 doses of the vaccine to immunize Palestinian frontline workers.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the top Palestinian official responsible for coordinating with the Israelis, said Israel had refused.
An Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that Israel had secretly supplied ‘dozens’ of vaccines to the Palestinians this week, but not yet at the larger request. did not respond. Several Palestinian officials have denied receiving any vaccines from Israel.
The Oslo Accords, the interim peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization in the 1990s, commit the two parties to work together in the fight against epidemics and to help each other in times of need.
The Geneva Conventions also oblige an occupying force to ensure medical supplies for the local population and the preventive measures necessary to combat infectious diseases and epidemics.
Alan Baker, a former Israeli ambassador and expert in international law who was involved in drafting the Oslo Accords, said he believed it would place an “obligation on Israel to help provide” vaccines. Covid 19 to combat, but that it “A two-way street.”
According to him, Hamas is holding Israeli hostages in Gaza and should be released according to the same humanitarian standards.
Israel’s health minister, Yuli Edelstein, said last week that it was in Israel’s interest to curb the virus on the Palestinian side, but that Israel’s first obligation was to its own citizens. (Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of East Jerusalem receive vaccinations through the Israeli program.)
Dr. Ali Abed Rabbo, a senior official in the health ministry, said the Palestinians wanted to receive two million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in February. They also expect the global Covax vaccine system to deliver 60,000 doses in the first quarter of 2021 and nearly two million more during the rest of the year.
United Nations officials have asked Israel to give the Palestinians some vaccines to protect their medical workers, said Gerald Rockenschaub, head of the World Health Organization,’s mission to the Palestinians.
But Israel has indicated to United Nations officials that it can not yet send vaccinations to the Palestinians because it has a shortage of shots for its own citizens, Mr. Rockenschaub said.