JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will offer Pfizer’s (PFE) updated COVID-19 booster injections. com. N)/BioNTech (22UAy. DE) designed to combat Omicron BA. 4/5 subsidiaries through the end of September, a senior health official said. said. said Wednesday.
The head of Israel’s coronavirus task force, Salman Zarka, suggested to at-risk team members to take the booster with a flu shot, anyone over the age of 12 and at least 3 months after a previous COVID-19 vaccine or illness is eligible. .
“We have been preparing for winter for some time and we are contemplating the option of two waves of illness in the country, the flu and the coronavirus, two waves that we have noticed in the world,” Zarka told reporters.
About a portion of Israel’s other 9. 4 million people have already received three doses of the vaccine and about another 850,000 people have received four, according to health ministry data. More than 4. 5 million coronavirus cases have been recorded in Israel since the beginning of the pandemic, with 11,667 deaths recorded.
The so-called Pfizer/BioNtech bivalent vaccine targets the recently circulating BA. 4/5 and the strain of the virus that first emerged in China in December 2019.
While the existing coronavirus vaccines used presented smart coverage against hospitalization and death, their effectiveness, especially against infection, has declined as the virus has evolved.
(Reporting through Maayan Lubell; Edited by Bernadette Baum)
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