JERUSALEM: The number of people inoculated in Israel for coronavirus passed the 2 million thresholds on Thursday (Jan 14), with the prime minister saying there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Israel “will become the first country to emerge from the corona crisis”, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted.
“We see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said, all smiles as he watched an Israeli woman become the second millionth person to receive the COVID-19 jab.
“I am the second millionth” to be vaccinated in Israel, read a sign held by 22-year-old Margaret Alsoso as she received her first dose of the vaccine in the city of Ramla near Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu – who faces yet another re-election contest and a corruption trial over the coming weeks – has sought to highlight his personal role in the inoculation campaign.
The prime minister was the first to get the jab on Dec 19, when Israel launched its inoculation campaign with the vaccine made by US-German pharma alliance Pfizer-BioNTech.
In early January authorities said 2 million people would receive a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the month.
The country, currently in its third national lockdown, has recorded more than 523,000 cases, including around 3,850 deaths, according to the health ministry.
