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Israel has already vaccinated more than a million people against Covid, with the highest rate in the world. At the same time, global immunization efforts are intensifying.
Romania, the 15th place in the world in the vaccination rate
Israel has a rate of 11.55 vaccines per 100 people, followed by Bahrain with a rate of 3.49 and the United Kingdom with 1.47, according to the site that centralizes global data, affiliated with the University of Oxford. By comparison, France has vaccinated just 138 people as of December 30, according to BBC News.
Romania ranks 15th in terms of vaccination rate on 1 January.
More than 1.8 million people around the world have died from Covid-19.
Vaccination comparisons are centralized by Our World in Data, which counts the number of people who received a first dose of vaccine. Most of the vaccines approved so far require two doses, given at intervals of more than a week.
The United States is far from aiming to vaccinate 20 million people by the end of 2020, with only 2.78 million receiving a first dose by Dec. 30.
Meanwhile, India is running simulations for the vaccination campaign that will start, probably next week.
Why is Israel so far ahead of other nations?
Israel began vaccinations on December 19 and administers 150,000 doses a day, prioritizing people over 60, those vulnerable to ill health and, of course, medical personnel.
It secured its supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after negotiations it had at the beginning of the pandemic. Now, he contacts people with priority access to the vaccine through the care system. By law, all Israelis must register with a state-recognized health care provider.
Israel has subdivided shipments of the Pfizer vaccine, which must be kept at -70 degrees Celsius, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said. This means that smaller batches of vaccine can be shipped to remote communities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel could emerge from the pandemic as early as February. Currently, the country is in the third blocking interval.
Why France is left behind
In the first three days of its vaccination campaign, which was launched on December 27, France vaccinated fewer than 100 people. By comparison, Germany administered more than 130,000 vaccines at the end of December.
The EU has been slower than the UK or the US in approving vaccines. The European Medicines Agency, the regulator for the 27 EU member states, agreed to the Pfizer vaccine on December 21, while the UK approved it on December 2 and the US on December 11.
The blockade in France is also generated by widespread skepticism about vaccination. A survey shows that only 40% of the French would be willing to receive the vaccine.
In China, 80% of the population wants to get vaccinated, 77% in the UK and 69% in the US.
Earlier this week, the French Minister of Health justified the slowness of vaccination by saying that the authorities had decided to administer it in nursing homes and not force the elderly to go to vaccination centers. French President Emmanuel Macron wants the process to be speeded up: “I will not allow slowness without good reason.”
What is happening in India?
India is organizing a national exercise for its vaccination program and says it wants to vaccinate 300 million people by mid-year.
The India campaign is based on the Oxford-AstraZeneca product, which was recommended by a government group. This vaccine does not require the same extremely cold storage as the Pfizer vaccine, and this is more convenient for India.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is known as Covishield in India. Another vaccine, developed by Bharat Biotech, is awaiting approval from the Indian medical authorities.
Covid-19 has killed nearly 150,000 people in India, a country with around 10 million infections.
Publisher: DC
