The Ministry of Health is expected to issue a guideline according to which vaccines against corona will also be given to those suffering from chronic diseases • Clalit will start vaccinating 24 hours a day
Corona vaccine in Israel // Photo: Yossi Zeliger
The corona vaccine campaign will be extended this week to people aged 60 and under who suffer from chronic diseases.
A directive on the subject for the HMOs is expected to be issued tomorrow (Sunday).
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, senior Ministry of Health officials have stated that by the end of December and at the same time as a large stockpile of vaccines arrives in Israel, the campaign will be extended to younger ages as well.
Until now, people aged 60 and under were only allowed to be vaccinated if they were immunocompromised, organ transplant recipients or members of the household of these patients.
At the same time today (Sunday), the vaccination campaign was launched among the occupants of the houses and sheltered housing and in welfare institutions.
The HMOs continue to vaccinate in March, and in the first week of the vaccination campaign, 210,000 Israelis have already been vaccinated against Corona.
It is estimated that another 30,000 people were vaccinated during Friday and Saturday, so that the number of vaccinated in Israel is approaching a quarter of a million people, already in the first week of the operation.
The vaccinated are people over the age of 60, medical staff and hospital and HMO employees.
Tomorrow, more than 150 vaccination complexes are expected to open throughout the country, including vaccination stations shared by the four HMOs and the Home Front Command.
By Tuesday, 230 vaccination stations will open throughout the country.
Clalit will begin vaccinating 24 hours a day later this week in large vaccine complexes in Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Haifa.
At the rest of the box office, the hours of operation were greatly extended until late at night.
In the Home Front Command and HMO complexes, it is reported that 700-1000 patients were vaccinated daily.
Northern District Commander in the Home Front Command Col. Guy Berger updated "We are recognizing a large increase in morbidity.
With a lot of sampling and investigations, we opened joint complexes with the local authorities, in which all 4 health funds operate, these are the peripheral localities, from the Golan Heights through Nahariya Shefar'am and more.
The benefits are joint work with the HMOs that make it possible to produce large suppliers alongside accessibility of the complexes.
Older people come, we accompany them and they have parking.
Even people who have difficulty with computer systems - there has not been a person who has not been vaccinated.
HMOs know how to be flexible. We have good feedback from the public.
We are prepared to set up another 5 to 10 vaccine complexes in the north.
The soldiers will work Friday-Saturday and as much as they need to.
We will clean the complexes subject to the approval of the Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, it turns out that even in the vaccine complexes there are those who can be vaccinated "in the 90th minute" even though they are not in the target groups.
R. (35) from Tel Aviv does not belong to any of the risk groups but managed to get vaccinated at Clalit's vaccination compound at Heichal Shlomo.
"We got there at 7:55 pm, just before closing and realized they did not want to be left with excess vaccine doses and just accepted us," he said.
"We saw reports on social media that it could be done. Before we arrived at the compound in Tel Aviv we were in Herzliya and there we were told we had missed and that a moment earlier cars had stopped and offered people to get vaccinated to finish all the dishes. It really happens."
HMOs are outraged at the initiative of hospitals to vaccinate in their immunization clinics insureds of the HMOs and claim that this will lead to chaos.
"There is no reason to bring a healthy population into the hospitals during an epidemic, there is no value to the vaccine complexes there. We do not know if our insured received a first dose at a hospital? The family doctor will not know this and it will not be possible to monitor side effects. "Who knows how to say whether a person is vaccinated against the flu, for example, a week earlier (according to the guidelines, you have to wait two weeks between the flu vaccine and Corona MI) is just an ego of the hospitals."
Meanwhile, the caregivers in Israel (home nursing) have been added to the first group of vaccinators and will now also be able to get vaccinated against the corona virus.
Doron Raz, Chairman of the Association of Nursing Service Providers in Israel, said: "We welcome the fact that about 100,000 dedicated caregivers caring for about 250,000 elderly people can now be vaccinated, and thank Prof. Hezi Levy, Director General of the Ministry of Health, who responded to our inquiries. "The vaccination of caregivers in the first group will give security to the elderly and increase the immunization of the elderly population, who will help caregivers to get vaccinated. The Corona period proved the vitality of caregivers to the economy, and especially their great importance for the elderly.