For the first time in 10 months, Israel did not record a single Covid-19 death in one day. The last time the country recorded no Covid-19 deaths was in the summer of 2020, between the first and second waves of the epidemic.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, on Friday, 129 new cases of coronavirus infection were identified in the country, and the number of deaths remained the same as on Thursday – 6346. Until then, the number of daily deaths did not exceed five for 10 days, and on April 22 it dropped to one. Israeli authorities last recorded deaths from coronavirus on June 29, 2020.
A total of 837,870 cases have been reported in Israel since the beginning of the pandemic. Based on this indicator, the country ranks 29th in the world, between Sweden (932,076 cases) and Portugal (832,891 cases).
Israel currently has the highest vaccination rate in the world. On Thursday, the number of people who received two doses of the vaccine in the country exceeded 5 million.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, more than 53% of the country’s population, or about 9 million people, have already received two doses of the vaccine. “This is a great achievement for the health system and the citizens of Israel. Together we will eradicate the coronavirus,” Health Minister Yuli Edelstein wrote on Twitter on Friday.
Last week, Professor Eyal Leshem, who heads Israel’s largest medical center, Sheba, said the country was close to achieving herd immunity. Herd immunity occurs when a significant portion of the population becomes immune, either through vaccination or illness. With herd immunity, the transmission of infection is interrupted and the number of carriers of the pathogen decreases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 65-70% of a country’s population should be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
According to Professor Leshem, herd immunity may be the only explanation for the decline in Covid-19 infections in Israel, which has continued despite the lifting of restrictive measures. “Despite the return to a virtually normal lifestyle, we are seeing a steady decline in infections. This tells us that even if a person is infected, the majority of people he or she comes in contact with are not infected by him or her,” Leshem said.
Mass vaccination against coronavirus began in Israel on December 20 last year. And in early February, the authorities began to ease restrictive measures. In particular, on February 7, residents were allowed to travel more than one kilometer from their homes. Israel is using two-dose vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The Israeli Ministry of Health announced in February that research has shown that people who received both doses of Pfizer’s vaccine had a 95.8% reduction in the risk of contracting coronavirus.
As the quarantine restrictions are lifted, the lives of Israelis, many of whom were unhappy with its severity, are returning to normal. The country is preparing to begin vaccinating children ages 12 to 15 as soon as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the use of vaccines in this age group. While Israel has accelerated its vaccination program, the Palestinian territories have fallen behind. Only in March did the Palestinians receive their first batch of approximately 60,000 doses of vaccine through the international Covax vaccine exchange program.