The promising COVID-19 vaccine currently being developed by Pfizer could start arriving in Israel this coming January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday, following a special ministerial meeting on the coronavirus pandemic.
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Netanyahu spoke with the CEO of the drug company this week following the news that its preliminary results have shown 90% efficacy for the vaccine. On Thursday, Netanyahu said that in the wake of that call, legal counsels on both sides managed to finalize the terms of a deal to supply Israel with the drug in an expedited fashion.
"We will get this vaccine like the other major countries around the world," Netanyahu said. "This will start in January, and the shipments will only increase as time goes by. We are going to help bring vaccines from other sources as well, the more the better." Netanyahu later clarified that the shipments were to start in the first quarter of 2021, not necessarily in January.
"Many countries want to be where we are now, because of this vaccine but also on a day-to-day level, because our morbidity is lower," he said, ending with a note of caution. "We will have to emerge from the lockdown with caution, in order to lower risk of infection," he said.
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