The Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Israel will speed up to a 24/7 format after the country registered fresh confirmed cases with a new strain of the novel coronavirus, the Ministry of Health has announced.
In a statement, the Ministry said that Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has decided to dramatically speed up the campaign, which began on Sunday, aiming to reach more than 100,000 vaccines a day. “In recent days, mutations have been detected in Israel. They are contagious at a rapid and unusual pace, which we have not yet met. We are in a chase against time,” the statement added.
The announcement came hours after a joint statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Health said that the government has decided to impose a full nationwide lockdown, the third of its kind since the onset of the pandemic, from 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The two-week lockdown will be extended for another two weeks unless the basic reproduction number, or the R number, falls below one, and the number of daily new cases falls below 1,000, according to the statement.