Israeli PM Bennett: Vaccine ‘significantly less’ effective against the Delta variant

The effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against the Delta variant is “weaker” than health officials had hoped, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Friday, as over 1,000 people tested positive for coronavirus and more countries were added to the list of places to which Israelis will be banned from traveling.
“We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less,” Bennett said.
The prime minister held a meeting of top health officials and ministers to discuss the next steps for managing the virus in light of the numbers in Israel and what Bennett described as “the Delta mutation leaping forward around the world, including in vaccinated countries such as Britain, Israel and the US.”
He said that in “Britain, in recent days, we have seen a jump in the number of children who are being hospitalized on a daily basis. This is a development that we are aware of; we are dealing with it rationally and responsibly.”
With more than 5.7 million Israelis having received at least one shot of the Pfizer vaccine, the country continues to push for citizens – especially teenagers – to go out and get the jab.


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