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 The director-general of Israel's health ministry, Nachman Ash,
accepted a recommendation late Thursday by an expert advisory panel
to expand third shot eligibility of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Those eligible will be "people over 50, health care workers, people
with severe risk factors for the coronavirus, prisoners and
wardens," the health ministry said in a statement.
After a successful vaccination campaign launched in late 2020 in
which around 60% of the population have received two shots of the
Pfizer vaccine, new daily cases dropped from more than 10,000 in
January to single digits in June.
But with the spread of the Delta variant across the globe, new
infections have jumped in Israel, reaching 5,946 on Monday, and
serious illnesses have been increasing as well.
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 Israelis aged 60 and over began
receiving the booster two weeks ago, ahead of
any third-dose approval by the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA on Thursday
authorised booster doses for people with
compromised immune systems.
 More than 700,000 seniors in Israel have
received their third shot, and Israel's major
health providers began on Friday to schedule
appointments for people in the 50-59 age group.
An initial survey has shown that most people who
received a third vaccine dose felt similar or
fewer side effects than they did after receiving
the second shot.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub; Editing by Mark
Potter)
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