PM Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein received their second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday night. The ministers received their vaccines at the Sheba Medical Center.
The Prime Minister said, “I am used to it but I am excited and I am certain that all citizens of Israel who are about to receive the second dose of the vaccine are excited like me. In my 17th conversation with my friend, Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, we agreed about additional huge shipments of vaccines for the State of Israel, which will enable us to vaccinate all citizens of Israel over 16 within two months, by the end of March at the latest.
The first huge shipment is due to arrive tomorrow and through Operation Getting Back to Life, we will be able to open our economy quickly, the pubs, restaurants, gyms, schools, synagogues and theaters. We will do so via the green passport; we will go into detail about this later.
For this to happen, I need two things from you, citizens of Israel: Be vaccinated and obey the lockdown against mutations. We are doing this together. We entered the coronavirus together and we will emerge from it first in the world and stronger than ever.”
Close to 20% of Israel’s citizens have already received their first vaccine dose. The Prime Minister plans for all citizens of Israel to be able to receive the vaccine by this Passover, at the end of March.
After the two ministers received their second dose, they were followed by Prof. Yitshak Kreiss, M.D., the Director General of Sheba Medical Center.
Over the past few days, world leaders from a number of European counties called Netanyahu to congratulate Israel on the rollout and to get advice on how to better implement the vaccinations in their own countries. Among the countries that called were Cyprus, Denmark and Austria.