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A student is vaccinated by an Israeli health worker on the 12th in Majdal Shams (Golan Heights) .JALAA MAREY (AFP)
The committee of medical experts that advises the Government of Israel on the pandemic has recommended this Tuesday a fourth dose of the covid-19 vaccine for people over 60 years of age due to the spread of the omicron variant, according to the Hebrew press. Although the approval of the measure depends on an interministerial commission, the proposals of the expert committee, which have been validated by 86% of its members, are usually ratified by the Ministry of Health and the authorities that manage the fight against the pandemic.
The Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, has described in a statement "very good news to help overcome the massive contagion" the recommendation of the specialists and has encouraged the population over 60 years to receive "immediately" the fourth puncture in less than a year. "The citizens of Israel were among the first in the world to receive the third dose of the vaccine (from Pfizer-BioNTech) and they will also be pioneers in the fourth dose," said the head of the Government, who in recent days had expressed concern about the rapid multiplication of infections.
The fourth dose will foreseeably be inoculated in Israel to those over 60 years of age, health personnel and so-called risk groups, such as immunosuppressed people who have received the third dose more than four months ago. More than four million of Israel's 9.3 million people have been inoculated with the third dose since last summer.
The Sheba hospital in the Tel Aviv area has been conducting studies and tests for several weeks on the application of the fourth dose of Pfizer's vaccine, the only one administered in Israel.
The expert committee had now ruled out another revaccination until the population was immunized with the third dose.
This Tuesday, 170 new cases of the omicron variant were registered in the country, double that of the previous day.
The Israeli Ministry of Health has reported this Tuesday the first case of a covid patient who died from the omicron variant, a 60-year-old man with previous illnesses.
