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One million people had received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Friday in Israel, which has a population of slightly more than 9 million.

Israel said yesterday two million people will have received a two-dose Covid-19 vaccination by the end of January, a pace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasts is the world’s fastest.

Starting on December 19, when Netanyahu got his first jab, Israel launched an aggressive push to administer the vaccine made by US-German pharma alliance Pfizer-BioNTech.

Health Ministry Director General Hezi Levy said that because of the enthusiastic takeup, Israel would be easing the speed of vaccination to eke out stocks.

The vaccine must be given in two separate jabs, administered three weeks apart.

“We are slowing the pace of vaccinations of the first dose, so that we can keep reserved stock for a second dose for all those who got a first shot,” Levy told public broadcaster KAN.

But he added that around a fifth of Israel’s people, starting with health workers and those over 60, would have had both shots by the end of this month. “By the end of January, we shall have inoculated two million residents, most of them elderly,” he said.

As of Friday, one million people had received their first injection.

“We are breaking all the records,” Netanyahu said Friday, during a visit to the Israeli Arab city of Umm Al-Fahm, where the millionth jab was reported administered.

“We are ahead of the entire world,” the premier said.

The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics said in a year-end statement that Israel’s population stood at 9.29 million.

The figure includes annexed east Jerusalem, where Israeli sovereignty is not recognised by most of the international community.

The health ministry said yesterday that 435 866 people in Israel had so far tested positive for the virus since the first confirmed case was reported in February. Almost 3 400 people have died, it said.

The ministry said on Friday that it had confirmed 18 local cases of a new strain of coronavirus first detected in Britain.

Meanwhile, Egypt has granted regulatory approval for the use of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharma giant Sinopharm, with the inoculation campaign expected to get under way later in January, the health minister said.

“The Egyptian pharmaceutical authority approved on Saturday the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine,” Hala Zayed told the local MBC Masr channel.

Zayed said the first batch of the vaccine was delivered in December, with further doses expected this month.

“The second shipment of this vaccine is due to arrive in the second or third week of January, and as soon as it arrives, we will start vaccinations,” the minister said.

Each batch of the vaccine consists of 50 000 doses. Zayed said Egypt plans to buy 40 million doses of the Sinopharm jab.

The health ministry has announced the first group to receive the vaccination will be the country’s medical workers.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with about 100 million inhabitants, has recorded more than 140 000 cases of the Covid-19 disease, including 7 800 deaths.

After a brief lull, the number of infections rose dramatically in late 2020, from about 100 new cases confirmed a day in October to some 1 400 daily cases currently.

Sinopharm announced on Wednesday that one of its vaccines, to be distributed in China, was 79 percent effective.

The jab’s efficacy is lower than that of vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna – both over 90 percent effective.

Another jab developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University has proved to be 70 percent effective.

Egypt will also receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the third or fourth week of January, according to Zayed, who added that a contract “was being finalised”.

Negotiations with Pfizer “are under way” as well, she added.-AFP.