(Jerusalem) Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Tuesday that all Israelis over 60 and medical staff would be entitled to a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, after consulting with a panel of experts.
The statements come at a time when Israel is struggling to contain the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, decreeing travel bans and other restrictions without going as far as confining itself.
“I gave the order to prepare for the fourth vaccine immediately,” Bennett wrote on Twitter. “The world will follow in our footsteps”.
A spokesperson said Israel was the first country in the world to administer the fourth dose.
The decision of the Panel of Experts on the Pandemic to approve the fourth dose is “excellent news” which “will help us get through the Omicron wave that is overwhelming the world,” the Prime Minister said earlier.
“The citizens of Israel were the first in the world to receive the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and we continue to be at the forefront with the fourth dose,” he said in a report. press release disseminated by its services, calling on those who meet these criteria to “go get vaccinated”.
Immunocompromised people may also receive the fourth dose, which can be administered to them, such as people over 60 and medical teams, at least four months after the third injection, the health ministry said in a statement.
Bennett spoke after a cabinet meeting devoted to Omicron.
The council restricted dining in shopping malls and decreed that children in communities with high morbidity rates and low immunizations should be taught at home.
Mr Bennett’s office added that the prime minister had ordered the health ministry and medicare funds, which handle vaccinations, to prepare for the fourth dose injection campaign.
Earlier today, Israel announced that it had added the United States, Canada and several other countries to its red list of some 50 states to which it is banned to travel, in an attempt to contain Omicron.
These restrictions on travel abroad, which already affected France, the United Kingdom and most African countries, will take effect on Wednesday and will remain in force, as for the other “red” countries until at least December 29.
The other countries added to the red list on Tuesday are Belgium, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Morocco, Portugal, Switzerland and Turkey.
These measures concern, in the case of the United States in particular, hundreds of thousands of Israelis with dual nationality.
Israeli citizens and residents in a newly redlisted country will be required to confine themselves for a week upon their return.
The Prime Minister had recently defended these restrictions, necessary according to him to avoid having to resort to new confinements in the face of this fifth epidemic wave, and called on the population to telework and to have children vaccinated.
As of Tuesday, 1,148 confirmed and “very probable” cases of Omicron were reported in Israel, more than half of whom were vaccinated people, according to the health ministry.
The Soroka medical center in Beersheba (south) announced that a 60-year-old suffering from “several” “serious” pathologies had succumbed to Omicron, arguably the first person to lose his life as a result of this variant in Israel.
More than 4.1 of Israel’s 9.3 million people have received three doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Children between the ages of five and 11 are currently being vaccinated.