Israel has extended eligibility for a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine to all citizens age 12 and above, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday.
“This is a privilege that no other country has,” said Bennett, adding that two million Israelis had already been inoculated with the booster shot.
The program has already begun to show results, he added, with severe morbidity beginning to slow. However, he warned, the peak of the immunization drive still lay ahead.
In a joint press conference on Sunday, Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash, head of Public Health Services Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis and coronavirus project coordinator Salman Zarka presented the recommended protocol for optimum protection, over time, against the virus and its variants, as follows: The second dose should be taken 21 days after the first, and the third dose five months after the second.
