Despite its first success with the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine, Israel is rapidly heading for a third national blockade as the virus spreads.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet blame a strain that is spreading most rapidly for the first time in the UK last month. Israeli officials confirmed four cases of this tension on December 23, days after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was an emerging problem.
An ultra-Orthodox Jew receives a vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while Israel continues its national vaccination action, during a third national blockade of COVID, at a branch of Maccabi Healthcare Services in Ashdod, Israel, on 29 December 2020.
Amir Cohen | Reuters
On Tuesday, at a cabinet meeting, Netanyahu told ministers, “We are in a state of emergency.” Ministers agreed on Friday a blockade that would begin closing non-essential schools and businesses and force residents to stay within a mile of their home.
This comes amid a global uproar over a slow deployment of vaccines in the U.S. and elsewhere that Israel has been able to largely avoid.
Tom, 69, and Judy Barrett, 67, of Marco Island, are waiting in line early in the morning at the Lakes Park Regional Library to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Fort Myers, Florida. USA, December 30, 2020. Image taken December 30, 2020.
Andrew West | USAToday | Reuters
Israeli officials have boasted that the country has vaccinated more people during the first nine days of its vaccination campaign than the one that has suffered the most covid infections since the beginning of the pandemic.
The country had already vaccinated about 7% of the population of more than 9.2 million people as of last week. The Israeli Ministry of Health projects that up to 90% of the “at risk” population will receive the second of two vaccines from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the next 25 days.
The effectiveness of his vaccine campaign has made him a potential role model for the rest of the world, epidemiologists say.
Israel had an early advantage, said Dr. Itamar Grotto, the associate director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health and one of the officials who ran the post. “We have a national vaccination record that was set up a few years ago; the whole country is in a database,” he said in an exclusive interview with CNBC.
Registration was initiated to ensure that the children received all the shots. This infrastructure allowed Israel to be better prepared for this outbreak than many other countries fighting the virus. Israel had a terrifying fear for Covid-19 when it was hit by a wild-type poliovirus outbreak in 2013.
The country controlled this disease with an intense inoculation campaign that gave way to the current vaccine database.
Israel’s medical infrastructure also provides some other benefits, he said:
- Medical care in Israel is largely socialized.
- Israel has only four health maintenance organizations that serve citizens across the country, while many other nations have more competition in the system.
- These HMOs are all connected to the country’s national health service, which keeps records of all Israeli citizens.
- The whole system is digitized, under a single national system.
Before the packages carrying the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine began arriving in Israel on December 9, a group assembled by the government began to classify who would get the shots in the first wave.
The boxes containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are ready to be shipped to the Pfizer Global Supply Kalamazoo manufacturing plant in Portage, Michigan, on December 13, 2020.
Morry Gash | Swimming pool | Reuters
At the same time, the Ministry of Health began to establish a communication and distribution system so that when the roads containing the vaccine arrived, they could touch the ground, he said.
Patients in the first group database who received the vaccine received an appointment by email, text, or through an online registration form with a date and time frame for obtaining the vaccine. Regular clinics, community centers, hospitals and some sports stadiums were transformed into vaccination centers and had previously trained medical staff, he said.
Because the vaccine cannot be re-frozen after thawing, Israel encourages vaccination site managers to use all doses.
Grotto said there is a waiting list of people who can intervene in a short time if other people do not show up at the end of the day. Distribution center officials also divide the vials into smaller packages, suitable for each center, another effort to avoid waste.
Israel’s challenges, however, are far from over. Health officials recently confirmed that nearly 500 doses were wasted in the southern part of the country because health workers could not get enough people waiting to come to the vaccination centers.
Israel expects more shipments from Pfizer. He also made deals with Moderna and AstraZeneca; however, these photos have not yet been delivered. But it is expected soon. Israel is also working on its own vaccine, but it is not known when it will be ready.