Israel's health ministry said on Saturday that the injection of the two doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was 95.8% effective against contamination with the coronavirus.
The Hebrew state launched a vast vaccination campaign on December 19, considered one of the fastest in the world, thanks to an agreement with the American laboratory Pfizer allowing Israel to quickly obtain millions of doses in exchange of biomedical data on the effect of the vaccine.
98.9% effective in preventing death
So far in Israel, 4.25 million people (out of a population of nine million) have received the first dose of this vaccine, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health.
Of these, 2.88 million received the necessary second dose.
According to the ministry, the vaccine showed that it was 95.8% effective in preventing contamination by the coronavirus, two weeks after the injection of the second dose, 99.2% in preventing serious forms and 98 , 9% to prevent death.
READ ALSO>
Vaccination against Covid: the good signals from Israel
The data, compiled up to February 13, showed that the vaccination was also effective one week after the injection of the second dose: at 91.9% to prevent contamination with the virus, at 96.4% to prevent severe forms of the disease and 94.5% to prevent death.
"Rediscover our habits that we lack"
Of 620,000 who received their second COVID vaccine, only 608 contracted the virus.
Most fully vaccinated COVID patients, the Haaretz newspaper reports, either suffered only mild symptoms or were asymptomatic.
Of the 608, 21 were hospitalized and among them, seven had severe symptoms, three had moderate symptoms and 11 had mild symptoms.
Another study, published on February 18 in the journal The Lancet, and conducted by the Sheba Hospital, located near the Tel Aviv metropolis, estimates the vaccine's effectiveness at 85% two to four weeks after the first dose. .
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
"Our goal is to continue the vaccination of the entire population aged 16 and over [...] which will allow us to regain our habits which we miss", said Saturday the director general of the Ministry of Health, Hezi Levi, in a statement.
Israel has officially recorded more than 744,000 cases of Covid-19, including more than 5,500 deaths, since the start of the pandemic.
