The start of the coronavirus vaccination campaign next week will not make a significant difference at least until the end of this winter, a Military Intelligence taskforce said Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel will begin administrating coronavirus vaccinations on December 27 and that Israel was ready to vaccinate 60,000 people a day. Thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Israel last week via special charter flights.
The IDF's Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center, which is part of Military Intelligence Directorate, said in a special report the arrival of the vaccines is not expected to "affect the course of the epidemic in Israel" in the short term.
"Along with the FDA's approval and the start of the vaccination campaign in the world and in Israel, it must be remembered the vaccines are not expected to have a real impact on the outbreak in Israel until the end of winter."
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The storage in central Israel facility where the vaccines are stored
(Photo: Nadav Abbas )
In addition, coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash said he believes that only by the end of March or beginning of April the country will return to full activity. "My hope is that we will be able to celebrate the next Passover almost freely," he told Ynet, referring to the Jewish holiday that is set to begin on March 28.
He added the health authorities are trying to start the vaccination campaign before December 27. "Efforts are being made to bring forward [the date]," he said. "We will kick it off very quickly, and we will reach a point that within a few months a large volume of the population is vaccinated."
In the meantime, the Health Ministry reported 1,288 people tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday after 44,810 tests had been conducted, putting the contagion rate at 2.9%.
At least 321 patients are in serious condition, of whom 128 are ventilated. The official death toll now stands at 2,983.