21 residents of retirement home get coronavirus after receiving vaccine
Health officials have stressed that the two-dose Pfizer vaccine regimen means that the vaccine is only fully effective about five weeks after the first dose.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFElderly residents receive coronavirus vaccine at Mediterranean Towers assisted living, Dec. 22, 2020(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/ MAARIV)
Some 21 residents of a Bat Yam retirement home tested positive for the coronavirus after they were vaccinated but before they had developed antibodies, according to Ynet.The other 150 residents of the home will be tested for the virus.Health officials have stressed that the two-dose Pfizer vaccine regimen means that the vaccine is only fully effective about five weeks after the first dose. This means it could take until sometime in February for enough elderly and high-risk people to be vaccinated to help lower the spread of infection and start reopening the economy.Moreover, the risk of catching coronavirus after the first jab has been confirmed in that some 15,000 patients who received the first dose of the vaccine were screened and 428 were confirmed positive for COVID-19 and some 12 people were hospitalized, according to reports. It is possible that some of them were exposed to the virus even before being vaccinated.On Friday morning, Israel’s one millionth citizen was vaccinated against the novel coronavirus in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.Israel is number one per capita worldwide when it comes to vaccinations. Some 10% of the population has already received the first jab.Nonetheless, the virus has not stopped spreading and health officials plan to appeal to the government to tighten restrictions next week, potentially closing up as the country had over Yom Kippur.
