More Israelis vaccinated against COVID than sick since start of pandemic

• Author: TZVI JOFFRE
• Date: 29 December 2020
• Published date: 29 December 2020
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Some 495,000 Israelis were vaccinated as of Tuesday morning, just nine days into the vaccination campaign, while 407,285 Israelis had been confirmed as infected with the virus since the beginning of the outbreak. More than 115,000 Israelis were vaccinated on Monday alone.

A quarter of all 70- to 79-year-olds in Israel were vaccinated against the virus as of Tuesday morning, while 20% of Israelis in their 60's, 18% of citizens in their 80's and 11% of citizens 90-years-old and older were vaccinated as well.

Some 1,765 Israelis under the age of 20 were vaccinated as well as of Tuesday morning, with 12 children under the age of 10 vaccinated despite regulations banning children under the age of 16 from receiving the vaccination.

The city leading the country in the total number of vaccinations issued as of Tueday morning was Tel Aviv, with almost 27,000 vaccinations, followed by Jerusalem, Haifa, Petah Tikva, Rishon Lezion, Holon, Ramat Gan, Beersheba, Netanya, Ashkelon, Rehovot, Herziliya, Bat Yam, Ashdod and Modi'in-Maccabim-Reut.

The city which had the highest percentage of its population vaccinated as of Tuesday morning was Arad, followed by Kiryat Shemona, Kiryat Tivon, Mevaseret Zion, Kiryat Motzkin, Kiryat Bialik, Nahariya, Karmiel, Eilat, Ramat Hasharon, Haifa, Ganei Tikva, Dimona, Herziliya and Yeroham.

A number of Arab communities in Israel were listed among the bottom 15 cities in terms of vaccinations, with some cities listed with only a few dozen citizens vaccinated so far.

The milestone comes amid reports from the media that the vaccine supply has been somewhat cut to HMOs throughout the country.

The director-general of the Meuhedet HMO Sigal Regev Rosenberg told KAN News on Tuesday that the vaccine supply had been cut, but would likely return after the HMOs raised awareness of the issue in the media. "We did not receive an orderly message and...