Israel will soon start administering a fourth vaccine dose to people over 60. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced this on Sunday.
The fourth shot is also offered to medical personnel who were vaccinated at least four months ago. In addition, Israeli health authorities approved the fourth shot last week for people with weakened immune systems and residents of residential care centres.
Israel is struggling with a coronavirus outbreak due to the omikron variant: last week, there were 5,000 infections, a number that experts say will quadruple by the end of this week. The new wave would be heading for a peak of 50,000 infections per day, five times as many as the previous wave in Israel.
“We must remain vigilant and act quickly and decisively if we are to keep the country as open as possible during this pandemic,” Bennett said.
Israel was the first country worldwide to vaccinate a majority of its population and also the most aggressive in administering the booster shot last year. But a fourth dose is causing a fuss in the country because according to opponents, too little is known about the usefulness of such a shot and the dominant omikron variant.