Israel has launched the fastest vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in the world, inoculating almost 20% of its population in three weeks. The small country, with about nine million people, almost the same as New York City, now aims to inoculate most of its population in March.
While Israel’s vaccination campaign is relatively straightforward compared to the massive mobilizations needed by countries like the United States that have far more people spread across a wide geographic expanse, the effort offers some clear lessons.
Submit smaller vaccine shipments
The Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine should be administered within five days after leaving the main storage center and within six hours after adding a diluent before extracting from five to six doses of one vial.
To cope with this short shelf life and reach less populated and isolated areas, Israel – with the approval of Pfizer – devised a system to divide the company’s 1,000-dose packages into smaller batches of a few hundred each. Workers repack the vials at workstations equipped with massive freezers.
Israel, like most other countries, gives priority to medical professionals, people over 60, and people at high risk as vaccine recipients. But to make sure roads are not wasted, authorities also allow vaccination centers to distribute leftover doses to anyone who shows up.