- Title: Israel expands COVID vaccine booster campaign to over 50s, health workers
- Date: 13th August 2021
- Summary: JERUSALEM (AUGUST 13,2021) (REUTERS) ELDER MAN WALKING INTO CLINIC VARIOUS OF NURSE GIVING ELDER MAN VACCINE NURSE INJECT THE VACCINE IN NEEDLE NURSE INJECT THE VACCINE (SOUNDBITE) (English) LOUIS FRANKETHER, 55, SAYING: "Because we are in the middle of outbreak of the Delta variant. And I believe the people who don't get themselves vaccinated, are hurting themselves and hurting others. So there is an opportunity to get the vaccine and to do something that is good to the public health and good for my own health and I am going to do it." DOCTOR IAN MISKIN, INFECTION DISEASE CONSULTANT, HEAD OF TASK FOR CORONAVIRUS FOR CLALIT IN JERUSALEM (SOUNDBITE) (English) INFECTION DISEASE CONSULTANT, HEAD OF TASK FOR CORONAVIRUS FOR CLALIT IN JERUSALEM, DOCTOR IAN MISKIN, SAYING: "The answer is but Israel is a trial country, we are trying to learn what to do with breakthrough infections. What we are finding out here will be a value for people in india and people through out the world when their vaccination starts losing its proof and losing its efficacy, then they have something to do they realize they can give a third dose. Alternatively the vaccine will be offered in three dose, zero, one and six months. And this will learn from the Israeli experience and there no other way to finding it in short time but using a large population under control and understanding weather we are getting protection from this vaccine or aren't we." MAN WAITING TO GET VACCINE NURSE PUTTING VACCINE IN NEEDLE WOMAN GETTING VACCINATION PEOPLE AT CLINIC
- Embargoed: 27th August 2021 13:20
- Keywords: COVID-19 Israel coronavirus health minister vaccine
- Location: JERUSALEM
- City: JERUSALEM
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Health/Medicine,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA002EQ4662V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Israel on Friday (August 13) lowered to 50 from 60 the minimum age of eligibility for a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot and will also offer them to health workers, hoping to stem a surge in Delta variant infections.
The director-general of Israel's health ministry, Nachman Ash, accepted a recommendation late Thursday (August 12) by an expert advisory panel to expand third shot eligibility of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Those eligible will be "people over 50, health care workers, people with severe risk factors for the coronavirus, prisoners and wardens," the health ministry said in a statement.
After a successful vaccination campaign launched in late 2020 in which around 60% of the population have received two shots of the Pfizer vaccine, new daily cases dropped from more than 10,000 in January to single digits in June.
But with the spread of the Delta variant across the globe, new infections have jumped in Israel, reaching 5,946 on Monday, and serious illnesses have been increasing as well.
Israelis aged 60 and over began receiving the booster two weeks ago, ahead of any third-dose approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA on Thursday authorised booster doses for people with compromised immune systems.
More than 700,000 seniors in Israel have received their third shot, and Israel's major health providers began on Friday to schedule appointments for people in the 50-59 age group.
An initial survey has shown that most people who received a third vaccine dose felt similar or fewer side effects than they did after receiving the second shot.
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