Vaccine is 98.9% protective against death caused by COVID, Health Ministry says

The Health Ministry says its latest data shows the vaccine is 98.9% effective at preventing death caused by COVID-19.

The vaccine is also 99.2% protective against serious illness, reduces morbidity by 95.8% and decreases the chance of hospitalization by 98.9%.

The data represents Israelis who have received both doses of the vaccine, 14 days after their second dose, versus people who have not received any inoculation.

The data is representative of findings up to February 13, the Health Ministry says.

Israel is overwhelmingly using the Pfizer vaccine. As of Friday, over 4.25 million Israelis had received a first shot — out of a population of 9.3 million — of whom some 2.9 million had received the second.

The Health Ministry findings follow results nine days ago by the Maccabi HMO, which reported zero deaths among 523,000 people a week or more after their second vaccination shot.