Israel's successful COVID-19 vaccination drive has led to another major milestone on Thursday after the Israel Defense Forces announced that it has all but reached herd immunity, essentially ensuring the level of the disease would be minimal in the organization.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
This makes the Israeli military the first in the world to eradicate the pandemic within its ranks, possibly making it the only large organization worldwide that can claim this.
Some 85% of active-duty service members will have been inoculated by next week, either through vaccines or by means of having recovered from the illness and developed antibodies, the IDF said.
The IDF said that some 8% of the force currently serving have yet to get the vaccine despite this being offered to all Israeli adults. Some have refused to get it, but others have co-morbidities or are currently pregnant and hence may not be able to take it safely.
"We have resolved to get all soldiers in the IDF vaccinated as soon as possible and we wanted this to be without throwing out vaccine doses," the head of Technological and Logistics Directorate, Maj. Gen. Itzik Turgeman said. "And we did it," he said.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
