Israel will likely achieve herd immunity for coronavirus in the next month or two, top health officials said as the Delta variant continues to rage through the country.
The recent spike in infections coupled with the country’s aggressive booster campaign for the third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could mean “there is a good chance that in the next month or two, we’ll reach a situation that is very similar to herd immunity,” officials were quoted as saying, according to a report by Kan public broadcaster this week.
Tens of thousands of unvaccinated Israelis – mostly children – will be infected with COVID in the next couple of weeks, the officials added.
Combined with the recipients of the booster shots, officials said, would mean that more than 80 percent of the population will be mostly protected from the disease.
A teenager receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at Clalit Health Services, in Israel’s coastal city of Tel Aviv. Israel began administering novel coronavirus vaccines to teenagers as it pushed ahead with its inoculation drive. (JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty)
Some 20,000 people were diagnosed with the virus over the two-day Rosh Hashana holiday, bringing the number of active cases in the country to 85,617.
A total of 55 people died from COVID-19-related complications over the holiday, bringing the death toll to 7,260.
The current Naftali Bennett-led government did not impose a nationwide lockdown for the holiday, as was the case last year under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Channel 13 reported that those who received a third dose are 96 percent protection against coronavirus infections, compared with only 42 percent for those who have received two doses.
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