Benjamin Netanyahu to become first Israeli to receive Covid-19 vaccine

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become the first person in Israel to receive COVID-19 vaccine. During his video address from quarantine, where he has been after coming in contact with a COVID-19 positive person, Benjamin Netanyahu informed that he has asked to be the first to receive the vaccine so as to demonstrate its effectiveness. The Prime Minister has been in quarantine since Monday after coming in contact with a person who later tested positive for Coronavirus. 

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"On Friday, I will leave quarantine and on Saturday evening I will go get vaccinated. I have asked to be the first person to get vaccinated in order to serve as an example and to persuade you that you can and should be vaccinated," read Netanyahu's statement on on the Israeli government website, roughly translated into English.

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'Vaccine doses will be available by January-end'

In his video address, the Israeli Prime Minister also said that million of vaccine doses will be available to Israelis by the end of January. Netanyahu also called on citizens not to avoid getting inoculated. He also added that after all the frontline workers, the elderly and those in risk groups have been vaccinated, subsequent shipments of the vaccine can cover the entire population of Israel. 

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This announcement by the Israeli leader comes after the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine produced by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German firm BioNTech arrived in Israel. In total, the Israeli government had signed a deal for 8 million doses of the vaccine, which is already being used in the United Kingdom. Apart from this, Israel has also concluded deals with other manufacturers, including the US Moderna, for other candidate vaccines. 

Earlier on November 1, clinical trials for Israel's domestically produced vaccine against the Coronavirus disease began. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel has reported over 3,57,000 positive cases of Coronavirus, out of which over 3,000 people have died. 

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(With ANI inputs)