Israel starts fourth Covid vaccine rollout amid Omicron surge

Israel has started giving fourth Covid vaccine shots to people with weakened immunity amid a worrying Omicron surge.

Israel has started giving fourth Covid vaccine shots to people with weakened immunity amid a surge driven by the Omicron variant.

“The Omicron wave is here and we must protect ourselves,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said.

Israel’s health ministry approved the booster jab for people over 60 and health workers on Thursday, the same day that authorities reported more than 4,000 new cases of the disease, a high not seen since September.

Bennett warned that cases could surge to around “50,000 cases per day soon”, urging all adults and children to get vaccinated.

Israel has started giving fourth Covid vaccine shots to people over 60 and health workers amid a surge driven by the Omicron variant (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

The effort comes almost exactly one year after Israel began a massive vaccination drive on the back of a data-sharing accord with US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer.

Heart transplant patients were among the first to receive the additional shots at Sheba hospital in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, where health workers received test injections this week.

“I was worried at the start but after speaking to my doctor I felt reassured that it was a good thing to do, that it would help,” said a 50-year-old woman, Rinat Orion, among the first to receive the fourth shot.

Galia Rahav, a doctor, said: “We had good results with the third dose which only caused secondary effects such as light, localised pain. We can’t wait to see the results of this fourth dose.” Cardiologist Yael Peled said it would “increase protection against coronavirus”.

Israel on Friday also added residents of retirement homes and geriatric patients to those eligible to take the fourth dose.

“This decision was taken for fear of an increase in cases of contamination in such institutions that would endanger the health of these people,” the health ministry said.

Bennett has said Israel, which was among the first countries in the world to offer a third shot to the general public, will be a trailblazer for the fourth jab.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned that cases could surge to around “50,000 cases per day soon” (Photo by Emil SALMAN / POOL / AFP)

“Israel will lead the way in administering a fourth vaccine to the Israeli people.”

Chile has announced it will also offer a fourth shot to at-risk people starting in February, while health authorities in Britain and Germany are considering following suit.

More than four million people out of an Israeli population of 9.2 million have received three shots of coronavirus vaccine.

“Our strategy to confront Omicron is clear: the stronger the wave, the more protection we’ll need to confront it,” Israel’s health ministry said.

On Friday, Israel recorded a 24-hour tally of 4,916 new coronavirus cases, an increase of 152 per cent over the same day last week.

According to researchers at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, new daily infections could rise to 15,000 or even 20,000 within the next 10 days.

A total of almost 1.4 million cases of Covid infection, including 8,243 deaths, have been officially recorded in Israel.

More than four million people out of Israel’s population of 9.2 million have received three shots of coronavirus vaccine.