Israel’s Health Ministry this week ordered health providers to prepare to offer vaccines to the entire adult public (everyone over the age of 16) on Thursday.
Israel has led the world’s most rapid inoculation campaign, with over a third of the population receiving at least one dose.
Infection levels in the country remain high and the cabinet is set to decide whether to extend the nationwide tightened lockdown from Friday to Sunday.
Until now, vaccines were open to risk groups and anyone over 35, with the elderly first to be immunised, as well as teens aged 16-18.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the country is aiming to vaccinate 90% of those over the age of 50 against Covid-19 within two weeks.
Meanwhile, a new Israeli drug developed at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Medical Centre, has successfully completed phase 1 trials and appears to have cured 29 of 30 moderate to serious Covid-19 cases in days.
Hailing a “huge breakthrough”, the hospital said Prof. Nadir Arber’s EXO-CD24 substance had been administered to 30 patients whose conditions were moderate or worse, and all 30 recovered — 29 of them within three to five days.
The medicine fights the cytokine storm — a potentially lethal immune overreaction to the coronavirus infection that is believed to be responsible for much of the deaths associated with the disease.
