97% of recent COVID victims in Israel were not vaccinated - Netanyahu

“We are in a state of emergency,” the prime minister said.

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Clalit vaccination center in the Arab town of Zarzir with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein to help encourage vaccination among the Arab population. (photo credit: AMOS BEN GERSHOM, GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Clalit vaccination center in the Arab town of Zarzir with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein to help encourage vaccination among the Arab population.
(photo credit: AMOS BEN GERSHOM, GPO)
Over 97% of the 1,536 people who died in the last month from COVID-19 had not been vaccinated, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday during a visit to a Clalit vaccination center in the Arab town of Zarzir. “Less than 3% of them were vaccinated.”
 
The prime minister visited the center with Health Minister Yuli Edelstein to help encourage vaccination among the Arab population, which the prime minister said has increased in recent weeks but still lags behind the rest of the population.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are seen speaking at a Clalit vaccination center in Zarzir, on February 9, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are seen speaking at a Clalit vaccination center in Zarzir, on February 9, 2021. (David Cohen/Flash90)
“We are in a state of emergency,” the prime minister said. “That is why I am here, and going to all the Arab and ultra-Orthodox local authorities. There are gaps and we want to vaccinate everyone.”
 
Only 66% of haredim over the age of 60 have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Health Ministry, and only 57% of Arabs. In contrast, 90% of the rest of the public over the age of 60 have received at least their first shot.
 
Moreover, while 36% of all Israelis have been vaccinated, this includes 29% of the haredi population, 19% of Arabs and 42% of everyone else.
 
He said that the country’s vaccination centers are working around the clock to vaccinate the country.
 
“We are a country of vaccines,” Netanyahu said. “We have a vaccine for every citizen – for everyone. On Sunday alone, another one million vaccines arrived.
 
“If you get vaccinated, you save your life,” he continued. “There is no reason to take the risk of death.”
 
He said that young and old alike should get the jab, but people over the age of 50 should come first “because 97% of the dead are over the age of 50, and 93% of serious cases” are over 50, too.
 
Seventy-nine percent of citizens over the age of 50 have been vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.
 
The prime minister said that the only thing preventing more people getting inoculated was fake news, “malicious conspiracy theories being planted among the public, on the Internet.
 
“Do not believe them,” he said.
 
More than 3.5 million Israelis have been vaccinated with at least one shot, Edelstein reported early Tuesday morning. Of them, some 2,157,000 also received their second shot.
 
On Monday, Israel jabbed 122,000 with the coronavirus vaccine.
 
For several days, the number of daily vaccines was on the decline.
 
“To get back to routine, we need you all to go and get vaccinated,” Edelstein urged.