Israel enters national lockdown as the new Covid variant spreads fast, placing the country in a "state of emergency."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet consider the Covid strain first found in the United Kingdom last month the reason why Israel needs a national lockdown. Israeli officials reported four cases of the new strain on December 23, days after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced it became an emerging concern there.
“We are in a state of emergency," Netanyahu told ministers, who agreed to a lockdown that will close schools and nonessential businesses and urges residents to stay within a one-kilometer radius of their houses.
The lockdown comes amid a global complaint about a slow vaccine rollout in the U.S. and elsewhere.
However, Israeli authorities are proud that the country has inoculated more people in the first nine days of its vaccine campaign than it had in total Covid cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
Israel had already vaccinated 7% of its population of more than 9.2 million as of last week. The Israeli Ministry of Health predicts that up to 90% of the “at-risk” population will take their second of two shots from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine within the next 25 days.
Israel's vaccine campaign
Epidemiologists believe that the effectiveness of Israel's vaccine campaign has made the country a potential model worldwide.
Dr. Itamar Grotto, the associate director-general of the Israel Ministry of Health and one of the officials leading the charge, mentioned Israel's advantage. “We have a national vaccination registry which was established a few years ago; the whole country is on one database,” he said in an exclusive interview with CNBC.
The registry aimed to ensure children took all of their shots. That system allowed Israel to protect its population from the outbreak better than many other countries fighting the virus.
Grotto also commended Israel’s medical infrastructure. Among its advantages are medical care being largely socialized, having four health maintenance organizations that serve citizens, HMOs being connected to the country’s national health service, and a digitized system.
Before their vaccines began arriving in the country, the Ministry of Health formed a communication and distribution system so when the vials containing the vaccine landed, they could start right away.
Meanwhile, they transformed their clinics, hospitals, community centers, and a few sports stadiums into vaccination centers, all managed by previously trained health-care workers, Grotto said. Patients were given an appointment by email, text, or through an online sign-up sheet with a schedule to get their shot.
Grotto mentioned a standby list of people who can walk in on short notice if other people did not present themselves by the end of the day. People at distribution centers also divide vials into smaller packages in order to prevent waste.
Israel is expecting more vaccines from Pfizer. Its does from Moderna and AstraZeneca have not yet been delivered but are expected to arrive soon.
