Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this Saturday, December 26, a vaccination offensive against Covid-19 presented as "
unprecedented in the world
", aimed at immunizing a quarter of the population of Israel in one month.
“
Over the weekend I told the heads of the companies that supply us with the vaccines that our goal is to vaccinate 150,000 people a day from the start of next week, which would be a world record
,” Netanyahu said in a statement. communicated.
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But to carry out this health blitz, the State depends on the delivery rate of the 14 million doses ordered from Pfizer and Moderna laboratories.
"
I asked them to respond at our pace (...) They said they think they can do it
", said the head of the Israeli government.
At 150,000 vaccinations per day for 30 days, that would make 4.5 million doses administered, so 2.25 million people immunized - vaccination requiring two doses at three week intervals - or a quarter of the population of Israel ( nine million inhabitants), he estimated.
"
As soon as this is achieved, we will be able, within 30 days to get out of the coronavirus and reopen the economy (...)
", added Netanyahu, the first in Israel to be administered the vaccine on Saturday.
In the process, hospitals launched a vaccination campaign, starting with healthcare workers and people over the age of 60, the most vulnerable to the virus which has so far infected in Israel nearly 400,000 people and left 3,203 dead.
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However, faced with an increase in the number of infections in recent days, the government has decreed an almost generalized confinement as of Sunday, December 27.
Travelers returning from abroad must - with rare exceptions - spend their quarantine (10 to 14 days) in hotels designated by the authorities.
The vaccination sprint and the restrictions "
will allow us to emerge the first in the world
" from the pandemic, predicted Netanyahu, new to the election campaign.
His calculation suggests an end to the crisis in early March, so just before the new national elections scheduled for March 23.