The head of the Israeli Ministry of Health said that the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech is 98.8 percent effective in preventing deaths or hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
The Times of Israel reported that the director general of Israel’s Ministry of Health, Chezy Levy, said in a statement that the data collected by his agency also found that the vaccine was 99.2 percent effective at prevent serious cases of the disease. The data analyzed by the agency included only patients who received both doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, the newspaper noted.
“The vaccine reduces serious illness and death dramatically,” Levy was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel.
“Thanks to Israel’s strong health care system that has enabled us to vaccinate an unprecedentedly large percentage of the population, and our epidemiological detection facilities, we are the first country in the world to have the effect of the vaccine in the real clinical world. show, “Levy added.
The health minister added in Saturday’s statement that Israel will continue to vaccinate all adults over the age of 16 against the virus before continuing vaccinations for the country’s younger population.
Israel has been praised for the rapid pace of its program, which has so far resulted in about a third of the country’s population receiving a vaccine. However, the country’s government has also been criticized for the availability of the vaccine in areas that include the Palestinian government, including the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian authorities calling on Israeli officials to reduce the number of vaccinations given to the millions of Palestinians living in those areas. areas live, to increase.
The head of the Gaza Ministry of Health said last week that the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines had started arriving in the area, but stressed that the 2000s provided were far less than the amount needed for health workers inoculate in the area.