The campaign against the corona is now being waged on two fronts: halting the epidemic alongside vaccinating the population • Sweden has admitted that the mitigating policy adopted has led to a tightening of the quarantine, so a relatively early implementation of the move before reaching 8,000 verified will increase the chance of short quarantine.
Israel is currently conducting the campaign against the corona on two parallel fronts: the frontier of halting the plague and the front of eradicating the disease through vaccination of the population.
As part of the lessons of the second wave, campaign managers realized that in a situation where there are about 4,000 verified per day and a high infection rate, as is happening these days, immediate steps are needed to curb the increase in the number of patients severely.
Applying the closure involves severe damage to the economy and citizens' livelihoods and aggravation of phenomena such as loneliness among the elderly.
However, the relatively early application of a closure, even before we reach 8,000 verified and more than 800 patients severely, as happened in the second wave, will increase the chance of a short closure and reduce the damage caused as much as possible.
Following the spike in morbidity: Israel entered a third closure // Photo: Paz Bar, Newsenders, Yoni Rickner
Sweden, which has adopted a mitigating policy and avoided a rigid closure, has been forced to tighten its closure policy in the face of a surge in the number of severe patients and double mortality rates compared to neighboring countries.
The King of Sweden and the Prime Minister of Sweden even admitted that the mitigating perception had failed to stem the epidemic in other European countries, including Germany, Britain and France, and ordered a stricter policy of closure during Christmas and New Year.
The bright spot in the exit to the third closure is that this time we can hope that this is the last closure.
The government managed to bring a large number of vaccines to Israel in record time.
This is an unprecedented achievement, thanks to which we have become one of the first countries in the world to start the vaccination campaign.
The medical staffs in the hospitals began to be vaccinated // Photo: Yoni Rickner, Shmuel Buharis, Newsenders
The public, professional and strong public health system of the State of Israel, which is based on the health funds and hospitals, has mobilized vigorously for the task and vaccinated more than a quarter of a million people in the first week.
The picture on the European continent is completely different.
Many countries have not yet started vaccinating, including Belgium, where the Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant is located.
Israel, on the other hand, at the end of only one week of vaccinations, is a world leader in the rate of vaccinators per capita.
We must continue the trend so that in three months the population at risk will be vaccinated, and at the same time - we will also vaccinate the general population.
If we continue at this pace, Israel may be the first country to reach a herd vaccination.
The public began to get vaccinated // Photo: Gil Kramer
This week the number of vaccine centers in the community will increase, and hospitals will help vaccinate the elderly population and chronic patients.
Out of national responsibility and as part of the national vaccination effort of the entire population, the Sheba Medical Center began vaccinating Holocaust survivors in a designated and no-queue compound, as well as hematology and oncology patients.
He also established another vaccination center in Sheba, which operates 24 hours a day.
I have no doubt that the efforts and mobilization of the hospitals and funds for the vaccination campaign will soon bear fruit.
Moreover, thanks to the fact that our health care system is computerized, the data that accumulates in it can help the entire world in the vaccination campaign and make Israel a model.
Now the government's big challenge is to bring the required vaccine doses here.
On the part of the medical staff, I can assure the people of Israel that everything will be done so that the third closure will be the last.
The writer is a Deputy CEO of Sheba Hospital and a member of the Corona Commissioner Advisory Team