TEL AVIV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2020) Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has received his first shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Sunday, the day the mass vaccination program officially started in the country.
"I got the corona vaccine. Dear Israelis, go and get vaccinated too," Rivlin wrote on Twitter.
According to the president's office, the vaccine was administered at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem neighborhood.
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli to get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease.
A day after his inoculation, Netanyahu said that he was feeling fine.
"Yesterday I received the first anti-coronavirus vaccine in Israel. I feel great. I call on all citizens of Israel to go and be vaccinated. If we vaccinate everyone, or at least most of us, we will defeat the pandemic," the prime minister wrote on Twitter.
Healthcare workers, medical students, employees of geriatric centers and civil servants will receive the shots during the first phase of the vaccination campaign. People aged over 60 and other high-risk groups for COVID-19 will receive the vaccine during the second phase. Teachers, kindergarten assistants, social workers, prison staff and prisoners are expected to be vaccinated next.
The first shipments of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived in Israel last week. In total, the Israeli government has signed a deal for 8 million doses. Israel has also concluded deals with other companies developing vaccine candidates including US firm Moderna.
Clinical trials for Israel's domestically produced vaccine against COVID-19 began in early November. On December 14, it successfully completed the first phase of the trials.
