On Monday, January 4, 2020, people will receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in a Covid-19 mass vaccination center at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel.
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Israel’s largest healthcare provider on Sunday reported a 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 infections among 600,000 people who received two doses of Pfizer vaccine in the country’s largest study to date.
The health maintenance organization (HMO), Clalit, which accounts for more than half of all Israelis, said that the same group is also 92% less likely to develop serious diseases due to the virus.
The comparison was against a group of the same size, with corresponding medical history, who did not receive the vaccine.
“It shows unequivocally that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccination is extremely effective in the real world a week after the second dose, just as it appears in the clinical study,” said Ral Balicer, head of innovation at Clalit.
He added that the data indicated that the Pfizer vaccine, developed in partnership with German BioNTech, was even more effective two weeks or more after the second shot.
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, which compiled the national data, said Sunday that a sharp decline in hospitalization and serious illnesses earlier among the first age group vaccinated – 60 years or older – for the first time in those of 55 years and older.
Hospitalizations and serious illnesses continue to increase in younger groups who started vaccinations weeks later.
Israel has conducted a rapid deployment of vaccines and its database provides insight into the effectiveness of the vaccine and at what stage countries can achieve herd immunity.