The Ministry of Health on Friday withheld clear allegations from Israel’s virus tsar that the first dose of Pfizer vaccine offers less protection against COVID-19 than the US pharmaceutical firm initially indicated that it said its words were quoted out of context. .
Earlier this week, Army Radio reported that Nachman Ash noted in a meeting with health officials that many people became infected between the first and second Pfizer shots and questioned the effectiveness of the vaccine after just one dose. The data on the protective effect of the first dose against the virus is ‘lower than what Pfizer offered’, he quoted.
Pfizer says its vaccine, manufactured with BioNTech, is about 52% effective after the first dose and rises to about 95% up to a few days after the second dose.
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In a statement issued Friday, the Ministry of Health said reports of the tsar’s comments were “out of context and inaccurate.”
“The vaccination campaign in Israel started a month ago … during an increase in diseases and deaths in the country, which makes it difficult to evaluate the vaccination effectiveness without bias,” the ministry said. “The first evaluation shows the protective effects of the vaccine and it is carefully studied by the Ministry of Health.”
“The commissioner said we still have to see a decrease in the number of seriously ill patients. “As the second dose is endangered to populations these days, we expect the vaccine to have the full protective impact,” the statement said.
An education worker receives a COVID-19 vaccine injection at a Clalit clinic in Jerusalem on January 12, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
The Ministry of Health also announced on Friday that it had broken a record in daily vaccinations on Thursday, with 244,000 Israelis vaccinated.
Service figures showed that 2,441,379 Israelis received the first dose of vaccine, and 850,811 of them the second.
Israel is the world leader in vaccination on a per capita basis, according to Oxford-based Our World in Data.
For more than a month in Israel’s vaccination campaign, Ministry of Health officials had hoped to see a dramatic decrease in daily infections and serious cases, but there is currently no such trend. The more contagious virus variants – especially the British tribe – are blamed for the problems in reducing diseases and alleviating the heavy burden on hospitals, despite the lock-in and mass vaccinations.
The ministry also reported a slight decrease in daily coronavirus infections, as Israel’s worst outbreak since the pandemic began easing after weeks of strict lock-in rules.
According to the ministry, 7099 new cases were confirmed on Thursday, after peaking at more than 10,100 earlier this week. Along with another 1,228 cases since midnight, the total number of infections recorded in Israel has reached 585,746.
The decline in daily cases came as test levels dropped further, although the positive test rate dropped to 8.9 percent.
The death toll was 4,245, with 27 deaths recorded Thursday.
The ministry said there were 82,029 active cases, with 1,455 patients admitted to hospital for COVID-19. Of these, 1,128 were in a serious condition, with 310 on fans.