Israel to give pregnant women Covid-19 vaccines

An Israeli soldier gets vaccinated against the COVID-19 coronavirus at the medical centre of Tzrifin military base in the Israeli town of Rishon Lezion

Credit: JACK GUEZ
/AFP

Israel will allow pregnant women to receive coronavirus vaccines amid concerns that they are more likely to become seriously ill if they contract the disease.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Israeli health ministry said it would add pregnant women to the list of priority patients as there was "no evidence of harm resulting from vaccination during the entire pregnancy."

"In pregnant women who become infected and fall ill with the coronavirus, there is a higher incidence of a severe onset of the disease, than in a similar age population," officials said.

In Britain, pregnant women are not routinely allowed to receive the jab due to a lack of clinical trial data worldwide. However, they can be given the jab if they are in a high-risk group.

Pregnant women in the US can have the jab if they want, while Gulf states are vaccinating all citizens.

It came as two of the Israel’s healthcare providers said they would begin vaccinating all Israelis under the age of 35, widening the criteria for the jab even further.

According to the Times of Israel, some officials want the priority system to be scrapped and offer the jab to all adults as "there are enough vaccines."

To date, Israel has given the first of two jabs to around a quarter of its 9m-strong population, while half a million citizens have received their second jab.

An Israeli woman receives her second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from an army medic, left

Credit: Oded Balilty /AP

Hundreds of reserve combat medics have been deployed to assist nurses as they administer tens of thousands of jabs across the country each day. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, revealed this week he had mounted the syringe used to give him the first vaccine in a glass box in his office.

“This is the syringe that gave me the first vaccine out of the millions of vaccines that we brought to Israel,” he said in a video clip posted on Facebook. 

“We’ll be the first country in the world to exit the coronavirus [pandemic]. With faith, anything is possible."

On Tuesday the country set a new daily record for inoculations, giving out 200,000 doses. "That is the pace to defeat the mutation!" said Yuli Edelstein, the health minister, in a post on Twitter. 

Despite the vaccine rollout success, Israel recorded 10,000 coronavirus infections over 24 hours on Monday, the highest rate for the country so far in the pandemic. 

The Jewish state is currently in its third nationwide lockdown, which has been extended until the end of January. Some 4,000 Israelis have died from coronavirus.