COVID Vaccine: 4th Jab Approved In This Country As India Prepares To Give 3rd Dose

Tel Aviv: Be it COVID-19 booster shots or vaccine for children, India seems to be lagging compared to several countries.

It was only a week ago that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced healthcare workers and senior citizens with comorbidities will be eligible for a third precautionary dose from January 10. But it’s yet to be decided whether beneficiaries will receive the same vaccine as first two doses, or it will be a mix of different vaccines.

Israel, on the other hand, has approved a fourth vaccine shot for vulnerable people. The European country is one of the first to do so as the world sees a sharp spike in COVID cases driven by the Omicron variant.

Israel was also among the first countries in the world to administer a third shot of the vaccine.

“Today I approved giving the fourth vaccine for immunocompromised people… I did this in light of studies that show the benefit of the vaccine, including the fourth vaccine, to this population, and in light of the fear they are more vulnerable in this outbreak of Omicron,” Israel’s Health ministry director-general Nachman Ash told reporters.

On Thursday, Israel reported over 4,000 new coronavirus cases, the highest since September.

According to Health minister Nitzan Horowitz, Israel is in the midst of a ‘fifth wave’.

Out of a population of 9.2 million, around 4.2 million people have already received three shots of COVID-19 vaccine.