Therapy Areas: Vaccines
Israel to continue with fourth COVID-19 vaccine jab
18 January 2022 -

Israel will continue to offer a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot despite preliminary findings that it is not enough to prevent Omicron variant infections, Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.

Last month, Israel started offering a fourth shot - also known as a second booster - to its most vulnerable and high-risk groups.

A preliminary study published by an Israeli hospital on Monday found that the fourth shot increases antibodies to even higher levels than the third but "probably" not enough to fend off the highly transmissible Omicron COVID-19 variant.

Health Ministry director-general Nachman Ash described those findings as "unsurprising, to a degree" as Omicron infections had been logged in some people after they received fourth doses.

Ash was quoted as telling Army Radio: "But we assess that protection from serious morbidity, especially for the elderly population and at-risk population, is still afforded by this vaccine (dose), and therefore I call on people to keep coming to get vaccinated."

"In another week we will begin seeing a drop in the numbers, but we still have two or three difficult weeks ahead," he added.

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