Israel has administered more COVID-19 vaccines than any other country, with more than 1 million people receiving jabs – a rate of 12.59 doses per 100 people, according to new data from a research site conducted by the University of Oxford managed.
Why it matters: As countries like the US fall behind on immunization targets, Israel has given more than 10% of the population 9.2 million doses of coronavirus since the administration of Pfizer / BioNTech’s vaccine on 19 December.
The whole picture: Israel is working on its third national exclusion, with more than 3,300 deaths due to COVID-19 and 435,000 cases. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country “could emerge from the pandemic as early as February” as it delivers doses to around 150,000 people a day, the BBC said.
- Israel has also entered into transactions with Moderna and other coronavirus producers. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are not covered by the deployment, which the Palestinian Authority has not officially requested, the Guardian reports.
- Israeli officials have indicated they can give Palestinians surplus vaccinations, and the UN-led COVAX initiative plans to distribute doses to the territories.
For the record: The US administered 4.23 million doses, a rate of 1.28 per 100 people as of Saturday, according to figures from Oxford-controlled Our World in Data, which measures single doses of the vaccine that typically require two samples.
- President-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration last week for “falling behind” on the goal of getting 20 million Americans the coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020. Trump has blamed the state for delays in distribution.
- Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, expects that this month there will be an increase in vaccine momentum in the US that will enable health officials to reach the projected pace.