Fewer than 0.1% of individuals who received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine contracted COVID-19, according to data released by Maccabi Healthcare Services.
Vaccine effectiveness in Israel is now 93%.
The Pfizer vaccine was proven to be 95% effective in its Phase III clinical trials.
The report, relying on data tracked until February 11, showed that a week after 523,000 people had received their second shot, only 544 were nevertheless infected.
“The data unequivocally prove that the vaccine is very effective and we have no doubt that it has saved the lives of many Israelis,” said Dr. Miri Mizrahi Reuveni, head of Maccabi’s health division.The majority of those who did contract the virus had only mild symptoms, or none at all.
“Out of 544 infected, only 15 people needed hospitalization,” the report said, “four of which were defined as being in serious condition, three in moderate and eight mild.”
Maccabi ran a random test among its non-vaccinated clients at the same time and found that of 628,000 members of diverse profiles, 18,425 or 2.9% contracted coronavirus during the same period.
“Since there is active morbidity among children and adolescents up to the age of 16 who cannot be vaccinated, and the mutations of the virus are much more contagious, this means that whoever does not get vaccinated will be infected sooner or later,” Mizrahi Reuveni contended. “Please hurry up and make an appointment as soon as possible. Protect yourself from serious illness and, God forbid, from death, as well as the possibility that you will infect and endanger others.”
So far, Maccabi has vaccinated more than one million members with at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and among the entire country, more than 3.7 million have been inoculated, including nearly 2.4 million who have had their second shot.
On Thursday, Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, reported that since the peak of morbidity in mid-January, there has been a 38% decrease in the number of patients in serious condition and a 40% decrease in the number of deaths among the population aged over 60.
He also said there are 58% fewer new patients from older age groups, and 44% fewer hospitalizations overall.
“About three weeks ago, they started receiving their second vaccine dose,” Segal wrote.No one who was vaccinated died, Maccabi reported.