Israel seals vaccine deal with Pfizer, amid signs pandemic spreading again
PM says Israel will receive enough doses to inoculate 4 million Israelis, though reports say deal allows company to pull out of its promises if circumstances demand
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday announced that Israel signed a deal with Pfizer to purchase millions of coronavirus vaccine shots, days after the US pharmaceutical firm said data suggested the vaccine was 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19.
The announcement came amid new worrying signs that infections in the country may be trending upwards again.
A military task force warned Friday that recent declines in new infections had halted.
“If the present trend continues in light of the easing [of restrictions] that has been implemented and those that are on the table, a renewed rise in morbidity is expected in the coming days,” the Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center said in its daily report.
And the Ynet news site reported that internal Health Ministry data showed the pandemic’s R-naught — the number of people each infected person infects — had risen to 1.0 for the first time since Israel began emerging from its second national lockdown in mid-October.
Any R-naught value above 1 means the pandemic is growing, while values below 1 show it is shrinking.
Such developments would likely stymie any further easing of national restrictions and possibly lead to some limitations being renewed.
As part of the agreement with Pfizer, Netanyahu said Israel would receive 8 million doses of the vaccine, enough to inoculate 4 million Israelis. Netanyahu expressed hope that Pfizer would begin supplying the vaccine in January, pending authorization from health officials in the United States and Israel.
“This is a great day for Israel and a great day for our victory over the coronavirus,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement at IDF military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
However, the Ynet news site reported that the deal does not obligate Pfizer to supply the vaccines but only states that it intends to do so “according to circumstances.” If it fails to supply them, the company will return Israel’s advance.
The report further said Israel will pay the NIS 120 million ($35 million) advance next week, and another NIS 680 million ($202 million) when the first vaccines arrive. Pfizer will then provide hundreds of thousands of vaccines every month for the duration of 2021.