[ad_1]
Israel received this Wednesday the first shipment of vaccines against the new coronavirus from Pfizer / BioNTech (USA and Germany) and others will arrive in the country in the coming days, to begin to be administered in the coming weeks.
This first batch contains only about 1000 doses of the vaccine. And, according to local media, it represented a pilot test to ensure transfer logistics were safe and smooth.
Between Thursday and Friday another 500,000 doses are expected to arrive and another million next week.
The vaccination campaign for the population will begin on January 20 and hospitals will be able to begin vaccinating medical personnel before that date, reported the Ministry of Health, which this week will decide the order of the groups that will receive the first vaccines.
The prime minister will be the first to receive the vaccine
This morning, in a speech at the International Airport and in front of the refrigerated plane of the DHL company that was transporting the first doses, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would be the first to receive the vaccine in the country, “to set an example” to the rest of the citizens.
“The solution to the new coronavirus pandemic has arrived,” said Netanyahu, who he described this day as “celebratory.”
According to a survey broadcast by the Israeli public television channel Kan, 40% of medical personnel and half of the country’s population fear being vaccinated.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu spoke with Pfizer Chairman Albert Bourla, who thanked him for shipping the vaccines and with whom he arranged new supplies – the price and quantity of which were not disclosed, the Israeli government press office said.
In November, Israel closed the purchase of eight million vaccines with Pfizer, for a price that was not disclosed, and this month it closed an agreement with the American biotech Modern to buy six million doses of its vaccine. against the new coronavirus.
It is also finalizing the purchase of ten million doses with the British pharmaceutical AstraZeneca, also having agreements with Arcturus (USA) and the Italian ReiThera, and is in negotiations with Russia to acquire its vaccine, Sputnik, in addition to trying to develop its own vaccine.
The covid-19 pandemic caused at least 1,545,320 deaths derived from more than 67 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.
