Israel is a world leader in coronavirus: more than 13% of the population is vaccinated. But for such a high pace there is no longer enough vaccines

According to January 4, more than 13% of Israeli citizens received the first dose of coronavirus vaccines. However, in the near future, the country will probably have to reduce the pace of vaccination - the problem is the supply of new doses from Western manufacturers. Medusa tells how Israel managed to achieve record indicators - and what the braking threatens for him.

Israel plans to reduce the flow rate of the first dose of the vaccine from coronavirus - or even completely stop it in the coming days, Times of Israel reports . Meanwhile, according to January 4, the number of people who vaccinate in this country reached 1.2 million people - this is more than 13% of Israeli citizens. By the number of per capita, the country became a world leader. For comparison, in the United States, the vaccination has made less than 1% of the population, and the Russian authorities talk about 800 thousand people (about 0.6%), but these figures are serious doubts.

How Israel became a record holder

According to The Washington Post, the main reason why Israel has achieved such success in vaccination is small size (the total population is 9 million people) and the features of the healthcare system. Each citizen of the country is obliged to attach to one of the "hospital cash desks", which, in turn, centrally distribute the received vaccines and have all the necessary information about their own customers.

In addition, in Israel, a systematic record of vaccinations made is carried out, so that the authorities are easier to control and manage the situation.

Finally, for the current prime minister of the country Beniamin Netanyahu, the success of vaccination is also a political issue. In March 2021, the fourth parliamentary elections in two years should take place in the country, and the fight against Pandemia will obviously become one of the main topics of the election campaign. However, WP experts doubt that the right Netanyga will be able to attribute all possible successes to themselves, because in many ways they are based at the work of a medical system organized according to socialist principles.

What went wrong

It is reported that the restrictions will not affect those Israelis who have already received the first dose of the vaccine - they will be able, as they should, to get involved a second time. But the first vaccination in the coming days, according to local media, will be able to receive significantly fewer people daily than before, when the number of vaccinated reached 100 thousand daily.

The main reason for the forced delay is the insufficient rate of the supply of vaccines to Israel. Now in this country Pfizer/Biontech vaccine is vaccinated, Moderna’s millionth batch of vaccines is also expected in the coming days. But even taking into account this, the country's Ministry of Health believes that it will be necessary to take at least a two -week break in primary vaccination.

Israeli Channel 12 reports that it was the record vaccination rate that led to difficulties in negotiations with Pfizer. According to the media, the governments of other countries demanded that the company more uniform distribution of its vaccines, and it cannot quickly increase production. In the company itself, however, they deny that any external pressure can limit supply.

However, the vaccination process itself is not quite smooth. According to the Israeli rules, people over 60 years of age, as well as representatives of risk groups, have a priority right to vaccinate. Not all of them are vaccinated, while, if the bottle with five doses in one is already extracted from the refrigerator, then in a short time they become unusable. In part, in order to avoid this, they vaccinate people who do not belong to any of the risk groups - a total of about 100 thousand Israelis, aged 20 to 40, have already received a vaccine. At the same time, some officials who also also do not fall into any of the risk groups were also vaccinated.

The percentage of refusal (up to 40%) is especially high in the places of residence of the Arab population. At the same time, Israel refuses to supply vaccines to the Palestinian territories - to the Gaza Sector and to the western bank of the Jordan River, claiming that the vaccination of the population, according to international agreements, is part of the competence of the local administration. At the same time, the country's authorities admit that they themselves are partially interested in the vaccination of the Palestinians, since thousands of them are constantly working in Israel.

The suspension of vaccination can additionally worsen the epidemiological situation in the country, in which the third Lockdown has already been announced over the past year, and the conditions may be tightened. The number of active cases of the disease exceeds 49.5 thousand, on January 3, 5135 new infections were recorded with a share of positive tests of 6.6% - one of the highest in recent months. Already, hospitals are forced to lay off from 10% to 40% of notorious operations. The authorities note that the next wave of coronavirus is more serious than the previous ones, the number of heavy currents is higher, and refer to the fight against Covid there are more premises.

Dmitry Kartsev