by Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM, Jan.2 (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday announced that people over 60 and medical staff will receive a second COVID-19 booster dose – known as the “fourth dose” – while the country is facing an upsurge in contamination by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Israel had extended last week the fourth dose of the vaccine developed by the duo Pfizer and BioNTech for immunocompromised people and elderly people living in care facilities.
“We now have a new layer of defense … Israel will once again be at the forefront of the global immunization effort,” Naftali Bennett told a press conference.
The director general of the Minister of Health had said in the day that Israel could achieve herd immunity with the increase in Omicron infections and the authorization of the oral treatment of COVID-19 from Merck for the sick over 18 years old.
New daily cases of COVID-19 in Israel are expected to peak in the next three weeks. Naftali Bennett said up to 50,000 people could soon become infected every day.
The daily number of new infections has more than quadrupled in Israel over the past ten days. The number of severe cases has also increased, but in much more limited proportions, from around 80,100 per day. (French version Laetitia Volga)