Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer is launching a trial of a COVID vaccine adapted specifically to target the Omicron variant, the medical center reported last week.
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The trial, being held under the auspices of vaccine manufacturer Pfizer, will be open to 180 participants in Israel who will be given the adapted version of the vaccine. To be eligible to participate, participants must be age 60 or over and have already received the original two doses of the COVID vaccine as well as a booster shot. Participants must have been given the booster at least four months prior to enrolling in the trial.
As of Thursday, 70 participants had been jabbed.
The trial is expected to take place over a few weeks.
Sheba Medical Center is the first medical institution outside the US to take part in the trial. The Israeli leg of the study is being overseen by Professor Gili Regev-Yochay, head of the Infectious Prevention and Control Unit at Sheba.
Bar-Yochay explained that "this is an extremely important study, as the world is still grappling with COVID variants, and possibly more variants in future. Vaccines are the only way to handle the COVID pandemic."
Meanwhile, a report from Israel's Coronavirus Knowledge and Information Center published last week said that the highly contagious BA.2 COVID variant was continuing to spread in Israel.
The report said that last week, there had been a rise in the number of BA.2 cases in Israel, and noted that the strain was more 30% more contagious than the original Omicron variant (BA.1).
"BA.2 is expected to become the prevailing variant in Israel. The rise in the number of these cases could slow down the drop in the spread of COVID, and possibly stop it," the report warned.
The report noted that COVID vaccines appeared to have the same efficacy in preventing the BA.2 strain as they did in preventing the BA.1 strain (some 50%), but were expected to prevent people who contracted the new variant from becoming seriously ill.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported Sunday morning that 4,562 Israelis had tested positive for COVID in the past 24 hours. There were 54,321 active or symptomatic cases, and 1,090 COVID patients were hospitalized.
Of the hospitalized patients, 471 were listed in serious condition, including 219 who were in critical condition. A total of 196 patients were on ventilators and 29 were hooked up to ECMO machines.
Thus far, nearly three-quarters of a million Israelis (730,920) have received two booster shots of the COVID vaccine. Over 4.4 million have received two doses plus a single boosters, and 6.1 million have received both original doses of the vaccine.
Israel's COVID death toll since the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020 stood at 10,276 on Sunday.
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