Israel is heading for normality at full throttle. More than half of the population has received at least one first vaccination against corona. Almost five million of the nine million residents are fully vaccinated. Overall, 85 percent of all 16+ year olds either got through the disease or received a vaccination and are thus immunized.
The figures also make the experts confident. On Monday, the biologist Eran Segal from the Weizmann Institute posted on Twitter: “At least for the time being, vaccines have practically eradicated Covid-19 from Israel.”
The scientist previously published a graph showing the correlation between the vaccination campaign and new infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Since mid-January, the number of infections has fallen by 98 percent, the number of seriously ill people has fallen by 93 percent and the number of deaths is a decrease of 87 percent.
Most recently, 150 new infections were registered per day. By way of comparison: In Switzerland, over 2000 cases were almost always reported daily in April.
The number of seriously ill corona patients has fallen to around 200. At the end of January there were still about 1200 of them in Israel.
Mask requirement lifted outside
A good year after the start of the corona pandemic, the requirement to wear a mask outdoors has been lifted. The obligation continues to apply in indoor areas that are used by the public. However, experts assume that, given the sharp drop in the number of infections, it can also be lifted in a month.
For the first time in a year, many schools were fully reopened. The children and young people learn again in class units instead of in small groups. In the classrooms, however, a mask is required.
Numbers are falling thanks to vaccination
Segal and his colleagues are convinced that the vaccination, and not the strict lockdown in January, is responsible for the success of the pandemic fight.
According to their study published in the «Nature» magazine appeared, after the start of the vaccination campaign, the number of cases and hospital admissions in the older age groups fell. So where the first spades were distributed. Only later did the infections also decrease among the younger ones – according to the vaccination sequence.
Such a pattern was not observed during the previous lockdown in September, the researchers note.
Does the South African variant thwart the bill?
Can anything go wrong now? How «N-TV» writes, success could be slowed down by various virus variants. In his study, the researcher Adi Stern from Tel Aviv University found that the Biontech / Pfizer vaccination was somewhat less effective against the South African variant (B.1.351). Nevertheless, this is not a cause for concern.
Stern and his colleagues emphasize that the South African variant has so far rarely been found in Israel and that the effectiveness is therefore definitely high.
No infection two weeks after the vaccination
Some time later, Stern also published an update on the study. None of the fully vaccinated people tested positive for the virus two weeks after the second dose or even later. “This could mean that there is a short window of susceptibility to B.1.351 infections that is limited to the immediate two weeks after the second dose,” said Stern.
Other analyzes also give Biontech / Pfizer vaccination good marks. A clinical study with 12,000 subjects showed that the vaccine protected against the British and South African variants. Even at least six months after the second dose.
And in another study from Israel, researchers came to the conclusion that the vaccine offers a very high level of protection – namely 94 percent – against asymptomatic infections. According to the data, the vaccine was also 97 percent effective in preventing symptomatic illnesses, serious illnesses and death. (man / SDA)