יותר מתחסנים מחולים: אתמול חוסנו למעלה מ 115,00 אזרחים. בסך הכל הגענו לכ 495,000 מחוסנים עד עכשיו. ב 9 ימי חיסונים יש לנו יותר מתחסנים מכל הנדבקים מתחילת המגפה. לא סתם אנחנו המדינה המובילה בעולם במהירות ההתחסנות. ממשיכים לחסן את ישראל! pic.twitter.com/3wRQKA9KYy
— Yuli Edelstein יולי אדלשטיין (@YuliEdelstein) December 29, 2020
Some 495,000 Israelis were vaccinated as of Tuesday morning, just nine days into the vaccination campaign, while 407,285 Israelis had been confirmed as infected with the virus since the beginning of the outbreak. More than 115,000 Israelis were vaccinated on Monday alone.
A quarter of all 70- to 79-year-olds in Israel were vaccinated against the virus as of Tuesday morning, while 20% of Israelis in their 60's, 18% of citizens in their 80's and 11% of citizens 90-years-old and older were vaccinated as well.
Some 1,765 Israelis under the age of 20 were vaccinated as well as of Tuesday morning, with 12 children under the age of 10 vaccinated despite regulations banning children under the age of 16 from receiving the vaccination.
The city leading the country in the total number of vaccinations issued as of Tueday morning was Tel Aviv, with almost 27,000 vaccinations, followed by Jerusalem, Haifa, Petah Tikva, Rishon Lezion, Holon, Ramat Gan, Beersheba, Netanya, Ashkelon, Rehovot, Herziliya, Bat Yam, Ashdod and Modi'in-Maccabim-Reut.
The city which had the highest percentage of its population vaccinated as of Tuesday morning was Arad, followed by Kiryat Shemona, Kiryat Tivon, Mevaseret Zion, Kiryat Motzkin, Kiryat Bialik, Nahariya, Karmiel, Eilat, Ramat Hasharon, Haifa, Ganei Tikva, Dimona, Herziliya and Yeroham.
A number of Arab communities in Israel were listed among the bottom 15 cities in terms of vaccinations, with some cities listed with only a few dozen citizens vaccinated so far.
The milestone comes amid reports from the media that the vaccine supply has been somewhat cut to HMOs throughout the country.
The director-general of the Meuhedet HMO Sigal Regev Rosenberg told KAN News on Tuesday that the vaccine supply had been cut, but would likely return after the HMOs raised awareness of the issue in the media. "We did not receive an orderly message and currently have to slow down the pace," said Rosenberg. "Hospitals do what they want - the issue should be orderly. It hurts our service to our customers."
Deputy Health Minister Yoav Kisch told Army Radio on Tuesday that vaccines may not have arrived at a number of HMOs but that there is not a shortage, adding that he expects that within weeks the entire at-risk population will be vaccinated.
The Health Ministry, together with the prime minister, is working to advance the number of coronavirus vaccinesthat will arrive in Israel next month to ensure that the country can continue its mass vaccination campaign, Edelstein said on Monday.
He added that the country is expected to receive millions of vaccine doses in the coming months.
A top health official told The Jerusalem Post that there are already around 3.2 million doses of Pfizer vaccine in Israel – enough to inoculate 1.6 million Israelis – and that another 600,000 were expected to arrive in the country this week.
Currently, Israel is vaccinating medical personnel, people over the age of 60 and those with chronic illnesses. It hopes to begin vaccinating teachers and school staff later this week or next.
The IDF vaccination campaign kicked off on Monday.
Israel hopes to vaccinate as many as 150,000 people per day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night. If successful, 2.25 million Israelis will be vaccinated within a month and a half.
Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman and Hannah Brown contributed to this report.