Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday that all Israelis over 60 and medical staff will be able to benefit from a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Already Thursday, the health authorities had given the green light to this new dose for immunocompromised people.
But "
the Omicron wave is here and we must protect ourselves
", declared the head of government during a press conference devoted to the pandemic, in full outbreak of contaminations linked to the Omicron variant.
Read alsoCovid-19: Israel has won its bet on the third dose, but hesitates on the issue of children
Israel also received Thursday a first delivery of anti-coronavirus pills from Pfizer as the number of contaminations continues to increase since the appearance at the end of November of the first case in the country of the Omicron variant.
The last few days have seen a spectacular jump in Covid-19 cases without, however, at least so far, resulting in a marked increase in hospitalizations.
Authorities on Sunday reported 4,206 new cases of Covid in the past 24 hours and an increase of 195% from a week ago, which could quickly increase pressure on the health system. "
We can expect to have 50,000 new cases per day soon,
" warned Naftali Bennett, who reiterated his call for mass vaccination for adults and for children who are not yet.
In a country of 9.2 million people, where more than half of the population has already received a booster dose, severe cases are currently concentrated in unvaccinated people, according to data released by authorities.
A total of 1,394,407 contaminations have been identified since the start of the pandemic in Israel, including 8,244 deaths according to official figures.
