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Israel releases astonishing results about effectiveness of COVID vaccine

Data so far shows the Pfizer vaccine has a very high effectiveness in preventing illness, hospitalizations and mortality.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

With nearly half of Israel’s population having received at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine, data released on the weekend by the Health Ministry shows that it has almost 99% efficacy in preventing serious illness, Israel Hayom reported Sunday.

According to the data, 14 days after injection, the second dose of the vaccine was 95.8% efficient in preventing new infections, and 98% of those inoculated did not develop fever or respiratory symptoms.

The vaccine is 98.9% effective in preventing hospitalizations due to corona, 99.2% in the prevention of severe corona cases and 98.9% in preventing death by coronavirus, the data shows.

The data as of Feb. 13 was for those Israelis who had received the required two shots of the vaccine made by the American company Pfizer, which are given three weeks apart. The effectiveness was compared to people who had not been vaccinated at all.

“Thanks to the strong health care system of the State of Israel, which has allowed us in a short time to reach an unprecedented inoculation in the population, and our ability for comprehensive epidemiological surveillance, we are the first country in the world to demonstrate the effect of corona vaccine in a real clinical world,” said Health Ministry Director General Hezi Levy.

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“The vaccine significantly reduces morbidity and mortality and this effect can be seen in the morbidity data in the country,” Levy said.

“Our goal is to continue to vaccinate the entire population from the age of 16 and up, and in time also under the age of 16, to achieve widespread coverage in the population that will allow us to return to the routine of our lives we all long for,” Levy added.

As of Monday, 4.4 million out of Israel’s 9.3 million population had received at least the first shot of the coronavirus vaccine, with 3 million – a third of the country – fully vaccinated with two shots.

With the infection rate dropping and a reduction in the number of Israelis hospitalized in serious condition with coronavirus, the government allowed large sections of the economy to reopen Sunday. For the first time in nearly a year, a live performance was held in Tel Aviv, though with a limited audience. Those admitted were required to show proof that they had received both vaccinations or had recovered from COVID-19.