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 A cargo plane landed at Ben Gurion Airport carrying what officials
said were tens of thousands of doses of Pfizer Inc. vaccines for a
trial run of transportation and storage procedures.
Israel plans to start administering the vaccines on Dec. 20,
distributor Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said.
"I believe in this vaccine. I expect that it will get the requisite
(regulatory) approvals in the coming days," Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said in an airport ceremony, adding that he intended to be
the first Israeli to be vaccinated.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech agreed last month to provide Israel
with 8 million doses of the vaccine, which Britain became the first
country to administer on Tuesday.
Israel has also ordered vaccines from Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca
Plc..
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An Israeli cabinet member said this week that Pfizer vaccines would arrive in
Israel on Thursday to be administered to the elderly and other high-risk
populations, and would be followed by Moderna vaccines.
Teva Israel Chief Executive Yossi Ofek said vaccines would arrive at greater
pace during the course of the month. "We are talking about a huge estimated
scope of 4 million vaccine (doses) by year's end," he told Israel's Army Radio.
A Teva spokeswoman said two vaccine doses would be required per person. Israel,
with a population of 9 million, has reported 348,968 coronavirus cases and 2,932
deaths.
(Additiona reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Steven Scheer; Editing by Ana
Nicolaci da Costa and Edmund Blair)
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