Israel started giving third doses of the coronavirus vaccine to its most vulnerable residents this week amid a surge in infections tied to the Delta variant.
“Even though I was very scared, I came, and I took the vaccine, and now I feel much better,” said Meirav Karasik, 47, moments after receiving her third dose.
Four years after a heart transplant, she became one of the first patients in Israel to receive the booster shot at Sheba Medical Centre near Tel Aviv.
The hospital gained approval to deliver booster shots from the Israeli Health Ministry on Monday and hours later, a corridor was full of patients in blue masks waiting for their jab.
“It’s very dangerous for people like us, the coronavirus, and now it’s a little bit less dangerous,” said Mrs Karasik, who works for a medical equipment firm and wrote a book about her heart transplant.
Israel is offering the third shot to adults who are especially vulnerable, such as organ transplant and cancer patients, more than six months after its nationwide vaccination drive was launched.
The decision follows a rise in coronavirus infections in Israel, home to nine million people, from an average of 12 daily cases one month ago to 464 this week.
After 11 days without any deaths, according to health ministry data, there were seven Covid-related deaths over the past week. Some of those who dies had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
Prof Yael Peled, medical director of Sheba’s heart transplant unit, said the aim of the booster shot was to “return to normal life and protect our patients”.
“It has been approved by our Ministry of Health, after very careful looking at the available data and assessing the risk versus the benefit of the third dose,” Prof Peled told The National.
Pfizer said last week it would soon publish data from a trial of the third dose and seek approval from regulators in the US, Europe and elsewhere to administer the booster shots.
There are no plans to offer the booster shot to the wider population, of whom more than 56 per cent have received two doses.
Israel hopes its high vaccination rate and targeted third dose will help curb the number of serious infections and prevent a fourth lockdown.
In neighbouring Gaza and the occupied West Bank, meanwhile, Palestinian Authority figures show only 7.5 per cent of Palestinians have received two doses.
Of more than three million Palestinians in the West Bank, Israel has vaccinated about 100,000 who hold Israeli work permits.
The policy of administering third doses while much of the world lags behind in vaccine distribution has been criticised by the World Health Organisation’s director general.
“Some countries and regions are actually ordering millions of booster doses before other countries have had supplies to vaccinate their health workers and most vulnerable,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a Monday briefing.
“I ask you, who would put firefighters on the front line without protection?” he asked. “We're making conscious choices right now not to protect those most in need, our own firefighters.”
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
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Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
The specs
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French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
