JERUSALEM, Feb 21, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Israel’s health ministry said
Saturday recent data from its aggressive coronavirus vaccination
campaign showed two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab were nearly 96
percent effective against infection.
Israel’s inoculation campaign is regarded as the world’s fastest,
with one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine administered to 4.25
million people out of its nine million-strong population since
December, according to the latest health ministry figures.
Some 2.88 million people have received the recommended full course
of two jabs.
The health ministry said on Saturday the vaccine had proved 95.8
percent effective in preventing coronavirus infection among those
vaccinated two weeks after receiving their second shot compared to
unvaccinated people, according to data compiled up to February 13.
It added the jab was 99.2 percent effective against serious illness
and 98.9 percent effective in preventing death.
For those tested one week after receiving a second jab, the vaccine
was 91.9 percent effective against infection, 96.4 percent effective
in preventing serious illness and 94.5 percent in preventing death.
“Our goal is to continue vaccinating all our population aged 16 and
up, to reach a wide coverage of the population that will enable us to
return to our much missed routines,” health ministry director general
Hezi Levi said in a statement Saturday.
The jab developed by US pharma giant Pfizer and its German partner
BioNTech is based on novel mRNA technology and was the first vaccine
against Covid-19 to be approved in the West late last year.
Israel, which has one of the world’s most sophisticated medical data
systems, secured a substantial stock of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by
paying above market price and by striking a data-sharing deal with the
US company.