Israel may get COVID vaccines for 2 million Israelis this month — reports

Israel may receive up to four million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine by the end of December — enough for two million people — and the Health Ministry is preparing health maintenance organizations for the possibility of inoculating some 80,000 Israelis every day, Israeli TV networks report.

The vaccines may start arriving next week, though they will still not be used as they have not yet received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, Channel 12 news reports.

Health officials are weighing whether to give approval to the vaccine before the FDA does, potentially allowing Israel to begin distributing shots, Channel 13 says.

FILE – In this June 24, 2020 file photo, a volunteer receives an injection at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg, as part of Africa’s first participation in a COVID-19 vaccine trial developed at the University of Oxford in Britain in conjunction with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca (Siphiwe Sibeko/Pool via AP)

Such a development could see a significant chunk of Israel’s population vaccinated by January — a far more optimistic projection than previously assumed.