Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will get the coronavirus vaccine on Saturday, according to a statement from his office.
Netanyahu wants to be the first Israeli to receive the shot in order to encourage more citizens to get inoculated.
In Israel, some ultra-Orthodox communities have struggled to contain the virus.
Medical professionals will be first in line to get the vaccine, followed by the elderly and their caregivers, then people over 60 years old, according to the statement.
They will be followed by those with pre-existing medical conditions, and finally the rest of the population.
In mid-December, Israel reported 3749 cases per 100,000 population. On the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there were 2798 cases per 100,000 people; in the Gaza Strip 1327 per 100,000, according to the World Health Organisation.
Medical experts estimate that Israel’s ultra-Orthodox have accounted for about one-third of the country’s COVID-19 cases, despite making up just 12 per cent of the population.
Israel’s Arab minority has also experienced disproportionately high infection rates, in large part because of the popular custom of holding large weddings.
And many middle-class Israelis have participated in mass demonstrations against Netanyahu as the economy has suffered and unemployment has soared.
Read the article by Yaacov Benmeleh in The Sydney Morning Herald (AP,Bloomberg).