IDF first army in world to reach herd immunity

The IDF is over 80% immunized to the coronavirus.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

The IDF has announced that it’s the first army in the world to reach herd immunity thanks to its vaccination campaign.

“After 10 weeks, I can declare that the IDF is the first military in the world to reach herd immunity,” Maj. Gen. Itzik Turgeman, head of the IDF’s Technology and Logistics Directorate, said Thursday.

Turgeman says 81% of Israel’s military has received the coronavirus vaccine, caught the virus and built up antibodies as a result or both contracted the virus and received an injection.

Herd immunity is when enough people in a group become immune to a disease so that protection is extended even over those who haven’t.

“We set ourselves the goal of vaccinating the IDF as soon as possible.” Turgeman told reporters, “We estimated that the operation would last 8-10 weeks, and today we are finishing the tenth week, we did it in the shortest time, accurately.” Turgeman added.

Seventy-four percent of military personnel have received both doses of the vaccine and 83% one dose, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office reported on Thursday.

“Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in the IDF, there were 149 cases in the army. Three weeks ago, the number of patients in the IDF stood at a record 2,033,” Kan News reports.

Israel’s citizenry recently counted its 5 millionth vaccination on Monday. The country is on track to vaccinate its entire adult population by the end of April, according to the prime minister.

Israel’s vaccination effort has been so successful that at one point Israel offered vaccines to 30 allies. However, political opposition and questions raised by the legality of the move caused a halt to the plan.