An Israeli healthcare group on Friday said coronavirus infections had plunged among people aged over 60 who had been vaccinated with the Pfizer Biontech vaccine.
Israel is currently leading the global vaccination drive, with around 30 per cent of its citizens having had at least a single dose of a jab so far.
But concern had risen globally over infection, death and hospitalisation rates in the country, which remained stubbornly high.
Out of 82,930 active cases on Thursday, 1,918 were hospitalized. Last week, the hospitalisation figure was just over 1,000.
Officials had hoped that the vaccine drive – which began on December 19 – would start to show an effect by mid-February.
But KSM Maccabi Research and Innovation Center claimed on Friday there had been a ‘significant decrease’ in the number of coronavirus infections among people aged over 60 who were vaccinated between December 19 and 24.
After analysing data of more than 50,000 patients aged over 60, they also found that hospitalisations in the same group had plunged by more than 60 per cent.
Israel secured access to large amounts of Pfizer’s jab by agreeing to provide data about its citizens for the company to track how well the jab works.
The new figures are a sign of hope that nationwide infections, deaths and hospitalisations could soon start to see a sustained fall.
It came amid reports that England’s chief medical officer was so infuriated by a newspaper story which claimed that a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine might only be 33 per cent effective that he threatened to report it to a press watchdog.
Chris Whitty told colleagues The Guardian’s report was ‘total nonsense’ which could threaten the uptake of the jab.
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