Israel: "Pfizer Vaccine Effectiveness, 39% Infection Prevention · 91% Severe Disease Prevention"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] Recently, the Israeli government announced that the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine in preventing COVID-19 infection has significantly declined again.

According to local media on the 23rd (local time), the Israeli Ministry of Health stated the day before that the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine in preventing COVID-19 infection dropped to 39%. However, the Ministry said that the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing severe illness remains relatively high at 91%, and its effectiveness in preventing hospitalization is 88%.

The Ministry of Health reported that among 1,152,914 COVID-19 tests conducted over the past month, 5,770 cases were so-called "breakthrough infections," where immunity was presumed to have been formed after completing two doses of the vaccine. Among the breakthrough cases, 495 patients were hospitalized, of whom 334 were classified as severe cases, and 123 died.

This figure is lower than the effectiveness announced by the Israeli Ministry of Health two weeks ago. At that time, the Ministry reported that after the spread of the Delta variant, the Pfizer vaccine's effectiveness in preventing infection dropped to 64%, and its effectiveness in preventing severe illness decreased to 93%.

Israel began nationwide vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine on December 19 last year, during the early distribution phase, and to date, 5.75 million people, accounting for 62% of the total population of approximately 9.3 million, have completed the first dose. About 5.28 million people, or 57%, have completed the second dose as well.

Accordingly, Israel lifted most quarantine measures in early last month and also removed the indoor mask mandate in mid-month. However, as the Delta variant spread and daily confirmed cases surged again, some quarantine measures, including indoor mask-wearing, were reinstated. Recently, the daily number of confirmed cases has increased to around 1,300 to 1,400.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.