Updated: 3 April 2021
More than 5.25 mllion Israelis have now received at least their first vaccination shot against Covid-19, with more than 4.8 million having the crucial second injection.
Professor Michal Linial of Hebrew University has claimed that people who have been fully vaccinated may not require further vaccination for two years or more.
The proportion of Covid tests returning positive results has fallen to less than 1% with the weekly number of new cases as of Friday being the lowest since last June.
Pfizer is claiming 100% effectiveness of its vaccine with young people aged 12-15 and the Israeli Health Ministry is planning to begin vaccinating that age group as soon as FDA approval is received.
Meanwhile, the revolutionary SpectraLIT Covid testing machine, produced by Israeli company Newsight Imaging results and which delivers in only 20 seconds has received EU approval for use.
Amid the fall-out from Israel's fourth general election in under two years, a survey published this week indicates that voters were not influenced by their views of how well the government has handled the pandemic. This will no doubt disappoint Prime Minister Netanyahu, who was hoping that the hugely successful vaccination programme would propel him to victory.
With infection rates continuing to decline, Israel remains in 19th place for the number of coronavirus tests per million people (1,476,135), five places below the UK (1,871,439). This compares to the disputed territories in 89th place (301,917).
Israel remains in 9th place in the list of cases of coronavirus per million people (90,684), still well above the UK in 36th (63,930) and the disputed territories in 56th place (47,877).
Israel has fallen to 58th place for deaths per million people (678 per million). The UK fell again, to 11th place, with 1,861 deaths per million, still far higher than Israel: a testament to the heroes of Magen David Adom and all those involved in the Israeli health system. Also impressive is the statistic for the disputed territories, with only 517 deaths per million people but with another slight rise to 66th place in the list. Both Israelis and Palestinians are therefore much less likely to die of Covid-19 than the frequency of confirmed cases would suggest, whereas people in the UK are much more likely to die.