Netanyahu announces ‘breakthrough’: All Israelis 16+ to be vaccinated by March; we’ll be the first to beat COVID-19

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces a “tremendous breakthrough” in obtaining additional Pfizer vaccines. The new deal with the company will enable Israel to vaccinate all of its citizens over 16 by the end of March, says Netanyahu, “and perhaps before.”

The agreement will seemingly avert a slowdown of Israel’s vaccine drive.

“We will become the first country to get out of the coronavirus,” Netanyahu declares.

“The first plane will come on Sunday and there will be more, consecutively,” he says.

Netanyahu says he and Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla agreed in a long series of phone calls that Israel will serve as a “model country” for Pfizer, and for all of humanity, offering statistical data on the vaccine’s effectiveness, to help toward a “global strategy” to beat the pandemic.

This was possible, he says, because of the world-leading success of Israel’s vaccination drive to date, enabled by the country’s superb healthcare service. Truly, he says, Israel will serve as “a light unto the nations” in the global battle.

“On the next Passover Eve, if there are no surprises,” Israelis can celebrate with their families, he says.

Israel is returning to normal life, says Netanyahu, as its third national lockdown is set to see restrictions tighten at midnight tonight. He urges all Israelis to observe the lockdown rules. “Victory [over COVID-19] is within our grasp,” he says.