PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Edelstein Meet the 500,000th person in Israel to be vaccinated
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein yesterday visited the Clalit Health Services anti-coronavirus vaccination facility at the Pais Arena in Jerusalem and met the 500,000th person in Israel to be vaccinated.
Photo: Amos Ben Gershon
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, Clalit Health Services Chairman Yochanan Locker and Clalit Health Services CEO Prof. Ehud Davidson also participated in the visit.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said: “First, I would like to commend Herzl and Fadila Levy, who are the 500,000th people to be vaccinated. It warms the heart to see the citizens of Israel joining in to help citizens of Israel, especially the elderly, emerge from great darkness into great light.
We have worked to bring millions of vaccines to the State of Israel via the Minister of Health and the Health Ministry, the hospitals and the HMOs, all of which joined in the huge vaccines operation.
We are ahead of the world in bringing and giving the vaccines. Israel is the world champion in vaccines, in first place by a lot. My mission now is to ensure that we will continue at this pace and we are working on it together.
We aspire to quickly give as many vaccines as possible but first to take the at-risk population out of risk because most of the tragic mortality and most of the morbidity is concentrated there. Only thus will we be able to open the economy, help businesses and restore life to normal. This is our goal: To get life back on track as quickly as possible.
I believe that if we continue to work together in a great partnership with the citizens of Israel who are coming to be vaccinated, maybe we will be the first country in the world to emerge from this coronavirus and this is very great news for all of us.”
Health Minister Edelstein added: “Prime Minister, at this pace, in a few days we will also invite you to the 1,000,000th vaccination. I visited several centers around the country yesterday and I saw the genuine joy of the people who were coming and being vaccinated. They were smiling and hoping to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to return to more normal life.
Alongside this, we are in a crazy increase in morbidity. I ask everyone to show responsibility and be strict about the guidelines. Only this way will we be able to successfully conclude this amazing operation. We are easing restrictions where it is possible. Today we decided to recommend the end of quarantine in designated hotels. This is still not to say that whoever needs to be quarantined can violate the quarantine. Violating the quarantine is like driving too fast while drunk. Only together will we be able to win, push off the disease and emerge from this darkness, from this slavery, to true freedom.”
