All Israelis over 16 will be vaccinated against covid by the end of March

PM Binyamin Netanyahu announced that he had reached a deal with Pfizer for the delivery of a large number of vaccines starting on Sunday, sufficient to immunize all Israelis over 16 by the end of March – in time for Passover. Netanyahu addressed the nation Thursday night,  hours before a strict lockdown went into effect at midnight. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein added: Covid vaccinations had reached 17pc of the population, including 90pc of the high-risk, elderly and medical personnel groups targeted as high priority. In the next fortnight, recipients of the first of the two doses of  vaccine will receive the second. After that, plans are being drawn up for distributing shots to the rest of the population. Edelstein disclosed that since Israel would be the first nation in the world to immunize an entire population against coronavirus, it had undertaken to transfer all the data collected in the operation to Pfizer as material for further research and development.