Israel’s vaccine drive won’t be enough for herd immunity even if everyone eligible gets inoculated, one of the country’s top health officials says during a government meeting, according to Hebrew media.
Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis. (Courtesy)
The head of public health services in the Health Ministry, Sharon Alroy-Preis, says: “Since there are 2.5 million children who cannot be vaccinated, we likely will not reach herd immunity even if the entire rest of the population gets vaccinated.”
“If there had not been a third lockdown… the situation would have been much worse, this is what worries me with the exit now,” Alroy-Preis adds.
She says: “If we do not want to reach tens of thousands of cases and thousands of those in serious condition, the lockdown exit strategy must be careful, responsible, and slow.”
She says reopening the country when there are almost 1,000 serious patients is “crazy,” but adds: “We don’t want to hold Israel hostage.”
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From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 7, 2021
